Eric Idle Quotes

My wife, Tania, is very big on dogs, so I'm always paying out to animal charities.

If you're famous, you have to [be overly generous], otherwise people say, "Eric Idle came in and only left me $4." I always tip more than people expect.

I don't invest in the stock market, but I have pension funds - some in America and the UK.

I try to not to be a celebrity as much as possible.

When I was 23 I started writing for I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again and was paid three guineas for every minute's airtime.

To me, the musical is best when it's a musical comedy. So if you have a very, very funny show, and very good, funny songs, that's what the musical does best.

I've always found bad films more enjoyable than good ones.

I didn't want to be big Mr. Ego walking around.

Pattycake, pattycake, baker's man; good morning, madam, I'm a psychiatrist

Everybody has their own free choice to do what they want.

I'm not really a celebrity; I'm just vestigially left over from doing stuff from before.

I think comedy's often the little and the large, isn't it?

Filming a pirate film is always good fun, with ships and indecent clothing.

Reading Alan Zweibel makes me laugh out loud. And yet it is not a particularly funny name.

I get to be the first doctor in the family [because of the honorary degree they're giving me].

There's no gap between the writer and the performer, which is what I think makes [Monty] Python unique. Five or six people who write Python and five or six who act it. That's what makes it unique.

I just believe in a huge universe of billions of miles.

Writers tend to suffer from back problems because they spend their time bent over a desk.

I got locked into a tradition [at Cambridge] of doing comedy.

I used to have a house in London, but couldn't face 20 more years of St John's Wood in the rain.

You could write a joke in the pub at lunchtime and watch it performed on television that evening.

I'm not careful with my money at all these days. I buy people a lot of dinners!

I never pay any attention to figures.

When, in 1966, I progressed to The Frost Report, I was paid ten guineas a minute. I was guaranteed three minutes a week, so this was good money.

I liked doing live things, and with the Circus we had a live audience.

I love my family, my wife, my kids, my dogs, my home, my life. I am a very happy and contented man.

I have been very blessed in my life and rewarded with good friends and good health. I am grateful and happy to be able to share this.