I enjoy racing historic motorcars from the '50s and '60s. The seed of my interest was planted when I was about 12 years old and took over my mother's Morris Minor. I drove it around my father's farm. But my favorite car is still a McLaren F1, which I have had for 10 years.
- Rowan Atkinson
Seed, Racing, Minor, Historic
I think I have an inner confidence that my tastes are pretty simple, that what I find funny finds a wide audience. I'm not particularly intellectual or clever or minority-focused in my creative instincts. And I'm certainly not aware of suppressing more sophisticated ambitions.
- Rowan Atkinson
Sophisticated, I Think, Tastes
I think the character does tend to suit an episodic thing, because what's fun about him is that he doesn't care about anyone else, and it's very difficult for a main character - a lead character - in a movie to not care about anybody else.
- Rowan Atkinson
Movie, I Think, Very, Episodic
You're about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest.
- Rowan Atkinson
Man, About, Kicking, Contest
The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult.
- Rowan Atkinson
Point Of View, Stating, Orthodoxy
But, actually, so many of the clerics that I've met, particularly the Church of England clerics, are people of such extraordinary smugness and arrogance and conceitedness who are extraordinarily presumptuous about the significance of their position in society.
- Rowan Atkinson
England, About, Particularly, Significance
I mean I can do it when I'm very relaxed, and with good friends, then I think I can be amusing.
- Rowan Atkinson
Think, I Think, Very, Relaxed
Monty Python crowd; half of them came from Cambridge, and half of them came from Oxford. But, there seems to be this jewel, this sort of two headed tradition of doing comedy, of doing sketches, and that kind of thing.
- Rowan Atkinson
Doing, Python, Half, Monty Python
But I always feel that whatever I do, I could do better. I suppose it is perfectionism.
- Rowan Atkinson
Better, Always, Could, Perfectionism
I have to say that I've always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can't let go.
- Rowan Atkinson
More, Always, Disease, Perfectionism
Confronting a stadium audience, you can't see the whites of their eyes. It's just an amorphous mass of noise and, of course, you can't see the alleged billions watching at home either, so the degree to which you are intimidated is quite low.
- Rowan Atkinson
Eyes, Mass, Confronting, Alleged
I would return to the Blackadder character if the opportunity came up. I have no qualms about that at all.
- Rowan Atkinson
Character, Would, Came, Qualms
I have always worried about things more than I should.
- Rowan Atkinson
More, Always, Than, Worried
I feel as though the camera is almost a kind of voyeur in Mr. Bean's life, and you just watch this bizarre man going about his life in the way that he wants to.
- Rowan Atkinson
Bizarre, Though, Almost, Camera
But generally speaking, I tend to be quiet and introspective.
- Rowan Atkinson
Quiet, Speaking, Tend, Introspective
In TV, and in particular in commercials, you don't really need to explain very much at all - you just say he's a spy and he's a little bit theatrical and overblown and smug and he's not very good at his job.
- Rowan Atkinson
Explain, Very, TV, Smug
And what's interesting about him as a comic character is that the custard pie hardly ever ends up on his face.
- Rowan Atkinson
Interesting, Him, About, Hardly
We still have a tradition certainly in English television; it's faded a bit in the last five years, but we still have a tradition where the important thing is the quality and the challenging nature of the programming.
- Rowan Atkinson
Still, Certainly, Faded, Programming
It's a bit disconcerting being treated like Madonna.
- Rowan Atkinson
Like, Treated, Madonna, Disconcerting
When I was doing Bean more than I've done him in the last few years, I did strange things - like appearing on chat shows in character as Mr. Bean.
- Rowan Atkinson
Doing, Like, Last, Appearing
There is always that age-old thing about England and America being divided by a common language. You think that because we speak English and you speak English that you're bound to understand and like everything that we do. And of course you don't.
- Rowan Atkinson
Think, England, Always, Age-Old
I'm not a collector. I don't like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate.
- Rowan Atkinson
Like, Cupboard, Many, Evaporate
Funny things tend not to happen to me. I am not a natural comic. I need to think about things a lot before I can be even remotely amusing.
- Rowan Atkinson
Think, Natural, Happen, Amusing
People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I'll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn't the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer.
- Rowan Atkinson
Think, Performer, Rather, Laugh
Nope, I don't enjoy work generally. Not because I'm lazy; it's just all so stressful and worrying.
- Rowan Atkinson
Work, Lazy, Worrying, Stressful
Apart from the fact that your physical ability starts to decline, I also think someone in their fifties being childlike becomes a little sad. You've got to be careful.
- Rowan Atkinson
Think, Fact, Be Careful, Apart
I have always regarded Mr. Bean as a timeless, ageless character, and I would rather he be remembered as a character mostly in his 30s and 40s.
- Rowan Atkinson
Always, Mostly, Mr, Timeless
I suddenly think the job of acting is a difficult one. It's not as flip, irrelevant and shallow a calling as I thought it was in the Eighties.
- Rowan Atkinson
Thought, Think, Irrelevant, Flip
I like to juggle with one ball at a time. Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time.
- Rowan Atkinson
Nothing, Ball, Like, Juggle
Of course, some would say if you have a performing inclination, then you should become a lawyer. That's a platform we use, or a priest. You know, anywhere you lecture and pontificate to people.
- Rowan Atkinson
Some, Use, Inclination, Lawyer
In the modern media age we are rarely surprised by what we see. Whether it's on television or film or in the theatre, everything is so advertised, so trailed, that most entertainment is merely what you thought it was going to be like.
- Rowan Atkinson
Thought, Entertainment, Like, Surprised
No, no, I was only funny on stage, really. I, I, think I was funny as a person toward my classmates when I was very young. You know, when I was a child, up to about the age of 12.
- Rowan Atkinson
Think, I Think, Very, Classmates
Get that right, then- if you get the quality right, then the marketability or whatever; your ability to sell videos or your ability to earn money or whatever, will follow naturally. But try to be creatively lead rather than market lead. And that's important to me.
- Rowan Atkinson
Videos, Rather, Your, Creatively
Mr. Bean is essentially a child trapped in the body of a man. All cultures identify with children in a similar way, so he has this bizarre global outreach.
- Rowan Atkinson
Trapped, Similar, Bizarre, Outreach
I don't much enjoy Back and Forth. I mean, I think it has its own particular qualities, but I think it's inferior to any of the half-hour ones we did.
- Rowan Atkinson
Think, I Think, Inferior, Qualities
Mr. Bean is at his best when he is not using words, but I am equally at home in both verbal and nonverbal expression.
- Rowan Atkinson
Expression, Using, Mr, Nonverbal
I consider myself more of a visual comedian than a physical one.
- Rowan Atkinson
Myself, More, Than, Comedian
The older you get, the more you realise how happenstance... has helped to determine your path through life.
- Rowan Atkinson
Through, More, Happenstance, Older
Not so much in Canada, but certainly in the US, as I'm sure you know, money is all, and if they can get another 26 programs of the same thing even though it advances the culture or those actor's careers not at all it doesn't matter.
- Rowan Atkinson
Matter, Another, Same Thing, Programs
It's not easy to take a sit-com and turn it into a feature.
- Rowan Atkinson
Turn, Easy, Take, Feature
I'm very good at having time off. I tend to take whole years off - I had 1994 and 1997 off. I find it very easy; I just love pottering around doing normal things.
- Rowan Atkinson
Love, Normal, Very, Normal Things
It's the difficulty we had with Mr. Bean, actually, when it went from TV to film. You certainly discover that you need to explain more about a character.
- Rowan Atkinson
Discover, Explain, Certainly, Difficulty
I want to express myself in a different way. I have a performing inclination.
- Rowan Atkinson
Myself, Want, Different Way, Inclination
And, we put a lot more value, or at least I personally put a lot more value, on the creative values and creative challenges of something than the commercial necessities.
- Rowan Atkinson
Commercial, Necessities, Creative
Marketing is what gets you noticed, and that side of it something - this side of it, if you like, doing interviews - is the side of it that I least enjoy, and yet is 50% of the project.
- Rowan Atkinson
Doing, Like, Side, Noticed
To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom.
- Rowan Atkinson
Freedom, Race, Ridiculous, Criticize
I'm more critical of the films I make than anyone else.
- Rowan Atkinson
More, Critical, Films, Anyone Else
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