Ian Hislop Quotes

I do have a residual belief that, if at all possible, you should try not to mock the weak.

In Britian we have a free press. It's not a pretty press, but it's free. The people who can't bear the Daily Mail, they say: 'you should ban it'. No, no, no, no, you don't ban it... you don't buy it.

I've seen the Pokémon movie, which is probably the worst movie ever made on any subject ever.

All the libel lawyers will tell you there's no libel any more, that everyone's given up.

Modest about our national pride - and inordinately proud of our national modesty.

I get paid to do what I enjoy, not that common a condition.

There's an awful lot of terrible television which I could do, but I mostly stick to Have I Got News for You.

The best comedy is where you attack the strong, not the weak.

You have a huge amount of confidence when you're younger, which slowly ebbs away for the rest of your life. You think: 'No problem. I can do that. Why shouldn't I do it?'

I've got a very peculiar sort of fame, based on being on the telly. It doesn't mean you have the lifestyle people expect.

My mother was a terrific force in my life. Wartime-generation woman, hadn't gone to university but should have done. Was very funny, very verbal, very clever, very witty.

I like making films about old people because they are repositories of amazing stories that they tell well. And they're incredibly good telly.

England Their England by AG Macdonell which was written in the thirties and is about a young Scotsman who's got shell shocked during the First World War… I love it.

You end up with this succession of periods when everything was marvellous - from King Arthur to the medieval times, Ivanhoe, chivalry, Henry VIII, Merry England, the Blitz

No, there are no hard and fast rules about sources, no printed booklet to help journalists through.