Eric Idle

It just seems to me that there's no particular reason comedy albums should be dead. There's a lot to laugh at. We have very funny people, still.

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

I listen to the audience and try and bounce with them. All audiences are different. But they are all homo sapiens.

Nobody gets irony anymore, as we are now living in the post-ironic age. Once George Bush gets a library, our irony is dead.

I like being a foreigner. For me, to live in California is very pleasant - I'm more comfortable not feeling a part of everything, not feeling responsible for the government or the roads or the health system.

It's such fun to take a lot of people and create something silly.

I love stage work. The thing about plays is that they're perfectible. With film, you shoot that take and maybe another. During 'Spamalot,' I rewrote Act II three times.

At least in America, you have freedom of speech, which is a good thing. It's just a question of whether you're allowed to use it on 'Fox News'.

I never think in terms of target audience. I try to write what makes me laugh, so I'm the target audience. I guess I just hope there's another person in America like me.

I'm drawn to things that aren't particularly popular at the time. I don't know why.

I won't read scripts because I have a limited amount of time. Why should I help other people do lame stuff when I can just go out and put on lame stuff of my own?

People can tell the truth much more freely when they're apparently lying.

Probably spending 12 years at boarding school - comedy became a survival gene. But I think some people are funny right off the bat, as soon as they can speak or be naughty.

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

I was thrilled to win a Tony in 2005 for 'Spamalot'.

I do pool exercises, like weightlifting but underwater. I walk, I swim... I'm pretty fit for an old bloke.

Talent is always more interesting - ambition is not interesting. If you have talent, you have to find ways of expressing it, but you may not be a success in the world's terms.

I will jump on anybody's private plane at the drop of a hat. I'm an old-fashioned lower-middle-class boy.

Americans like to think 'Python' is how English people really are. There is an element of truth to that.

The dreadful thing about getting older is you cry at the drop of a hat.

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.

No day of my life passes without someone saying the words 'Monty Python' to me. It's not bad.

If the studios paid the artists, how would they ever be able to afford the executives?

I think the special thing about Python is that it's a writers' commune. The writers are in charge. The writers decide what the material is.

Life is a comedy when watching and a tragedy when experiencing. I try and share anything I have.