Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervaisis an English comedian, actor, director, producer, writer and former pop singer and manager...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth25 June 1961
CityWhitley, England
years born feels
What will it feel like after you die? Exactly the same as it felt for those billions of years before you were born.
kids night laughing
[As a kid] I did enjoy making people laugh but I was also attracted to funny people. I'm [still] quite happy to not be the one trying to make other people laugh. I'm happy laughing at someone else. I enjoy laughing and I'll happily be the one just laughing all night if you can make me laugh.
thinking choices telling-the-truth
I think what makes us human is those choices - whether to tell the truth or not.
lying white world
A world without any lies at all is not a good world, because it's artless and because there are no white lies, no flattery.
mistake important world
The world is bigger than all the parts. That's the important thing, and one thing can throw everything off kilter. And you must never let yourself off. You'll let yourself off by mistake. So you shouldn't do it consciously. You have to be above it all and just be very disciplined with it. Just be very disciplined with it.
interesting office being-ignored
Everyday life is interesting enough, whether it be in an office or being ignored on the set of something supposedly more glamorous.
odd-things done television
I've probably done the odd thing. I've probably done more than I would have done and some things you don't say no to. You don't say no to working with "The Simpsons"... the greatest comedy show on television. You mustn't. Even though going to my bad judgment, I remember saying that all I can do is make this show slightly worse.
thinking careers use
I think sometimes you get given a good pile of goodwill, and it's whether you use it up in the first six months or spread it out over a career.
acting comedy fraternity
I don't see myself as part of an acting fraternity or a comedy fraternity.
children book thinking
We only do what we think is good and what we're happy with. I do that in stand-up, I even do it with my children's books. I don't do market research, I don't have focus groups, I don't care. I don't care if it fails, honestly. I'd rather have something that's completely mine fail than something succeed that I'm not proud of.
laughing way my-friends
I always chose all my friends on whether they were funny. What's a better way to pass the time than laughing or smiling?
hate people trying
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.
reading towns small-town
If you walked around like David Bowie in 1973 in Reading, you'd get beaten up. The 1970s in a small town was more like the 1950s.. and that's the truth. The backdrop was probably Victorian.
writing ideas perfect
There's nothing as perfect as the initial idea. And the only reason I write and direct is to protect the writing, because that's what's most precious.