Ricky Gervais People Quotations

People confuse the subject of the joke with the target of the joke, and they're very rarely the same.

I think the social faux par is probably what most people fear... more people fear public speaking than death and that's because we don't want to make a fool of ourselves. It's fundamental.

I don't feel any pressure at all because I don't care. That's an occupational hazard... but if you're doing anything of any worth, and not doing something that's safe and anodyne and trying to be populist and a national treasure, then you've got to assume that as many people hate what you do - and you - as like what you do and like you.

It's quite easy to make a load of people laugh, it's often a reflex action, but I think to make them cry is harder without manipulating them.

The most important thing in comedy - apart from empathy, which I think is important even if disguised - is surprise. I like surprising people with the fact that something's even a joke at all.

For every wacky postcard, there's a million people waiting to buy it, and for every $10 million of those things, there's one Rembrandt. Purposely, I think I want to aim at doing something that a lot of people won't like. I'm just worried that it looks like I've compared my work with Rembrandt. "Gervais says he's better than Rembrandt!".

I've worked in an office. People are sitting down doing their stuff, or pretending to do their stuff, and they're bored. I've heard a car tire screech and 30 people went to the window. That was a piece of excitement in their day, that a car might have had to stop quickly, you know. You don't need dinosaurs, you know.

It's a privilege to be in such a great category of people and... I don't believe in God, so I'd like to thank dogs. Dogs have given me everything.

I'm not a person that's easily embarrassed, but I'm embarrassed for other people.

Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right. Some people are offended by mixed marriage, gay people, atheism. So what? F*** 'em.

Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. And you don't know whether you're in a trough until you're climbing out, or on a peak until you're coming down. And that's it you know, you never know what's round the corner. But it's all good. "If you want the rainbow, you've gotta put up with the rain." Do you know which "philosopher" said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she's just a big pair of tits.

Hotel bars are pretty good. No one bothers me there. Restaurants are safe. People are quite respectful when you're eating. But what I never do now is go to a busy bar on the weekend, or after 8 o'clock at night. That's the danger zone. Also being trapped. Never go on the Metro, or a bus.

Spirituality really lost its way when it became a stick to beat people with: ‘Do this or you’ll burn in hell.

Some [people] are really smart. You know who you are. Some [people] are really thick. Unfortunately, you don't know who you are.

I'm a militant fundamentalist atheist. I'm going to get on a crowded train, unbutton my coat and say rational things. People will be hurt.

I love how people walk around with crucifixes, skullcaps, pointy hats, funny beards and then say 'you should keep your atheism to yourself.'

Fact is stranger than fiction. You see people walking down the street that would never be allowed on television. You have to tone it down.

We shouldn't even need the word 'atheism'. If people didn't invent ridiculous imaginary gods, rational people wouldn't have to deny them.

No one wants to see cool people doing brilliantly. I want to see the struggle. That's the fun bit.

In a safe Western world where we're not being shot at and we're not starving, the worst thing that happens to us most days is someone's rude to us, or we accidentally insult someone. Social faux pas is the worst thing that happens to most people, most days, so we've got to concentrate on that, really.

Comedy is a medicine - a healing process that can help people get through difficult times and understand things better

I use people's real voices because I want realism. So often I mention the actors' physicality because I want it to be like a real documentary.

People have let me down in the past. I've loved something, and it's become a disgrace. I'd rather start again.

I get so sick of people asking: "What's your demographic?" Or: "Oh we've got to aim this at..." No, you have to aim it at you. You do the thing you would love... make the thing you would love and be proud of. There's enough people in the world that, if you do that and do it well as a single vision, they'll go: "That's my favourite thing ever!"

Be happy. It really annoys negative people.

Unlike religious people, I look at all religions equally.

I think, as a comedian, the funniest you can be is with people you know, and [whom] you've known for years, in a pub. That's as funny as you get, and so the aim [while stand-up] is to get that funny on stage with 5,000 strangers, to get that funny in a room where people shouldn't be listening but they are.

Suggesting I hate people with religion because I hate religion is like suggesting I hate people with cancer because I hate cancer.

You want to see the people you've sort of come to know and love, or love to hate, you want to see them develop in some way. And I hope people get sort of caught up in that arc.

The terrible thing in England is if you interview a thousand people, five hundred of them will talk like they're going into a Guy Ritchie movie and the other five hundred will be Mr. Darcy. So we had to find cool, working class kids with no profile who could be John Travolta and James Dean and people like that.

Famous people are above the law,

No one grows up saying 'I hope I work in an office one day?' And that fascinated me. People from 16 to 65 are just thrown together and that is a tantalizing mix,

We picked on something people identified with -- a decent job at work, a relationship, a boss who needs to be loved and who is going through a mid-life crisis,

We had a hit list of people we approached, ... We told them some of the ideas we had. Because we spent such a long time writing the scripts for each episode, it would be mad to spend three months on a script for Sam Jackson, send it to him, and he goes, 'Why would I do that?' So we got a preliminary yes out of them, and then went way, wrote the ideas, spoke to them on the phone, sent them the script, and they all said yes.

People see me in the suit and they know I'm not fooling anyone, they know I'm rock and roll through and through.

So what if people think 'The Office' is better than 'Extras'? I had to do them in some order.

That's exactly what it did on BBC2. The people that get onto focus groups are force-fed big, broad comedies with laughter tracks and guest appearances. They're not going to like 'The Office' the first time they see it because they're not going to know what they're watching exactly. But if you stick to your vision and auteur it the way you think it should be done, there are enough people in the world that are like-minded and they're going to find it and it's going to be their favorite show.

Because it was couched in realism, I think people recognized things. The more you understand something, I think the more you can enjoy it.

Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them.