110+ John Cleese Quotes On Creativity, Snowflakes And Laughter

John Cleese is an English actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for being a founding member of the comedy group Monty Python, and for his roles in the films A Fish Called Wanda and the Harry Potter series. He is also known for his work on the BBC television series Fawlty Towers, which he co-wrote and co-starred in. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Cleese on creativity, snowflakes, laughter.

Top 10 John Cleese Quotes

1. The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen, the feeling that whatever happens, it's okay... you're either free to play, or you're not.
2. What have the Romans ever done for us?
3. All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
4. You don't have to be the Dalai Lama to tell people that life's about change.
5. Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.
6. Come to me. I want to plow you like a Calgary driveway at Christmas.
7. Creativity is not the possession of some special talent. It’s about the willingness to play.
8. I can certainly see that you know your wine. Most of the guests who stay here wouldn't know the difference between Bordeaux and Claret.
9. No hope for planet at all. But I will be gone before the planet is gone, so it's your problem.
10. Nothing will stop you being creative more effectively as the fear of making a mistake.

John Cleese Short Quotes

• If you want to know who your friends are, have a major failure.
• Don't let anyone tell you what you ought to like.
• I can do anything I want, I'm eccentric!
• My hovercraft is full of eels.
• A satisfied customer. We should have him stuffed.
• How to defend yourself against a banana
• When people say 'I'm not a prude, but ...' what they mean is 'I am a prude, and ...'.
• The Americans are just more enthusiastic and more likely to engage in hyperbole.
• It's a plastic surgeon you need, not a doctor
• It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.

John Cleese Quotes About Creativity

The most creative people have learned to tolerate the slight discomfort of indecision for much longer and so, just because they put in more pondering time, their solutions are more creative. — John Cleese

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. — John Cleese

To be creative you must create a space for yourself where you can be undisturbed... separate from everyday concerns. — John Cleese

If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time to be considering alternative strategies. — John Cleese

While you're being creative, nothing is wrong. There's no such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the breakthrough. — John Cleese

Creativity is not an ability that you either have or do not have. It is, for example, and this may surprise you, absolutely unrelated to IQ, provided you're intelligent above a certain minimal level. — John Cleese

It's easier to be creative if you've got other people to play with. — John Cleese

Telling people how to be creative is easy - being creative is difficult. — John Cleese

High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought. — John Cleese

I think we're all born with a sense of humor. Creativity is another thing though. — John Cleese

John Cleese Quotes About Laughter

I'm struck by how laughter connects you with people. It's almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy. — John Cleese

Laughter is the best creative medicine. — John Cleese

Laughter destroys any divisions between people. — John Cleese

Laughter is a force for democracy. — John Cleese

John Cleese Quotes About Learns

I learned a lot of things about literature talking to people at the publishing company. Did you know that about 90 percent of celebrity autobiographies are ghostwritten? — John Cleese

By watching the great, old comedians I picked up a few tricks about how to do physical comedy. And whenever I could learn something, I sort of added that to my repertoire. — John Cleese

He who laughs most, learns best — John Cleese

He who laughs most, learns best. — John Cleese

Students who laugh more- learn more. Students who laugh more earn more. — John Cleese

John Cleese Quotes About Laughs

If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth. — John Cleese

If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you open to my ideas — John Cleese

That's a lovely experience when you make an audience laugh. Then the nerves go away for a bit. And sometimes you do things then that you've never done before that are really funny. — John Cleese

Tension is wonderful for making people laugh. — John Cleese

John Cleese Quotes About Life

Life is a terminal disease, and it is sexually transmitted. — John Cleese

If life were fair, Dan Quayle would be making a living asking 'Do you want fries with that?' — John Cleese

I think humor is incredibly positive, I think it is life advancing. There's medical research to show that it improves your antibodies. It's all about sense and perspective. — John Cleese

Oh, I could spend my life having this conversation - look - please try to understand before one of us dies — John Cleese

I've always found life quite difficult to explain to people or to myself. — John Cleese

A lot of humour is about just enjoying life and spontaneity and because you make a joke that puts somebody down - we're always teasing each other. It's with affection. It's nasty teasing that we - not all teasing; nasty teasing you cut out. — John Cleese

I get bored easily. I've been bored most of my life. — John Cleese

John Cleese Quotes About British

There are 3 basic differences between we British and you Americans. One, we speak English, and you don't. Two, when we have a "World Championship", we invite teams from other nations. Three, when you meet the British head of State, you only have to get down on one knee. — John Cleese

The trouble with the British is that they are not interested in ideas. If Jesus came back today and offered to speak for an hour on British television, they would say, "What! Another talking head? — John Cleese

The British fans are liable to suddenly be talking to you about something that you don't know how you got into the conversation. I think it's something to do with the fact that they've been watching you for so many years sort of you telling your story. — John Cleese

British press think entirely in clichés, and when they do come across creative work, they think that it must be based on something, because they don't realize that you can create things that aren't based on things. — John Cleese

John Cleese Famous Quotes And Sayings

The one thing I remember about Christmas was that my father used to take me out in a boat about ten miles offshore on Christmas Day, and I used to have to swim back. Extraordinary. It was a ritual. Mind you, that wasn't the hard part. The difficult bit was getting out of the sack. — John Cleese

Muslims, who have a completely different value system, come to the West, then they should accept that there are certain basic values in the West intrinsic to our culture. Just as I wouldn't suggest that any Westerner walk down the streets of Saudi Arabia in a bikini. — John Cleese

Because, as we all know, it’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about. — John Cleese

There's nothing good on the television; let's burn a witch. It must have been terribly exciting to live in those times. — John Cleese

Political correctness is a bit like a granny, a maiden aunt arriving at a party when everyone's having a good time. And she comes in, they all start sort of buttoning up and becoming self-conscious and behaving properly and then when she leaves, you can have fun again. — John Cleese

Technology frightens me to death. It's designed by engineers to impress other engineers, and they always come with instruction booklets that are written by engineers for other engineers - which is why almost no technology ever works. — John Cleese

I think that the real religion is about the understanding that if we can only still our egos for a few seconds, we might have a chance of experiencing something that is divine in nature. — John Cleese

I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me. — John Cleese

If you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick. — John Cleese

If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies... Do it in the 'closed' mode. But the moment the action is over, try to return to the 'open' mode... because in that mode we are the most aware, most receptive, most creative, and therefore at our most intelligent. — John Cleese

If I like chocolate it won't surprise you that I have a few chocolates in my fridge, but if you find out I've got 16 warehouses full of chocolate, you'd think I was insane. All these rich guys are insane, obsessive compulsive twits obsessed with money - money is all they think about - they're all nuts. — John Cleese

Once we've made a decision, we are efficient only if we go through with it decisively, undistracted by doubts about its correctness. — John Cleese

Give your mind as long as possible to come up with something original. — John Cleese

I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you. — John Cleese

You can't make Christ funny. He's self-aware, he's too flexible within the situation. It's rigidity, it's when the ego takes over and the behavior becomes inappropriate that it becomes funny. — John Cleese

The Americans are so much more positive. They are much more in love with success. In Britain, they're a fairly envious bunch, and they love it if you fail. — John Cleese

My mum died about three years ago at the age of 101, and just towards the end, as she began to run out of energy, she did actually stop trying to tell me what to do most of the time. — John Cleese

I think there are so many activities going on, like mountaineering. You know, you would pay good money not to have to do that, and yet there are people racing out who want to spend their spare time clambering up rocks. — John Cleese

Basil Fawlty was an easy character for me. For some reason, portraying a mean, uptight, incompetent bully comes naturally to me. — John Cleese

It's too difficult to start right from scratch and try and be funny out of the blue. — John Cleese

I think the hard thing for young comedians is that the majority of the young people in the audience out there don't have the wide range of references. — John Cleese

The sad thing about true stupidity is that you can do absolutely nothing about it. — John Cleese

My views are heretical to people who believe in political correctness. — John Cleese

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him enter regional distribution codes in data field 97 to facilitate regression analysis on the back end. — John Cleese

There's something about watching an animal that puts you in contact with where we came from and what we're still a part of. — John Cleese

The open mode is a mood in which curiosity for its own sake can operate, because we're not under pressure to get a specific thing done properly. We can play. — John Cleese

Yes it's her husband. She hasn't got over it. Died thirty years ago. — John Cleese

Loving your neighbour as much as yourself is practically bloody impossible? You might as well have a commandment that states,'Thou shalt fly'. — John Cleese

Manuel will show you to your rooms - if you're lucky. — John Cleese

All humour is critical, you know? You make stupid jokes. I mean, stupidity is an infirmity, isn't it? — John Cleese

You go in and meet the head of BBC One and get an assurance about not dumbing down. And then, of course a few months later, he's been replaced by someone you haven't met. — John Cleese

This is the most important joke I've ever heard. Niels Bohr, the founder of Quantum Physics, had a friend to dinner. As the friend left, he noticed a horseshoe nailed above Bohr's front door. He said to Bohr, accusingly, "Niels, you're a great scientist. You can't believe in superstitions." Bohr answered, "I don't, but apparently it works anyway."As with confirmation bias, we tend to lean toward superstitions that benefit us. — John Cleese

I think the problem with people like this is that they are so stupid that they have no idea how stupid they are. — John Cleese

I think that I feel an indignation when I don't understand something. — John Cleese

years ago we would have been burned for this. Now what I am suggesting is that we've advanced. — John Cleese

When people quote sketches to me, half the time I don't know what they're talking about so I have to sort of go, aha, yes, oh yep, I remember that and lie my way out of it. — John Cleese

Filming is like a long air journey: there's so much hanging around and boredom that they keep giving you food. — John Cleese

What is absurd is not the teachings of the founders of religion, it's what followers subsequently make of it. — John Cleese

Why write about the past? Well, there's more of it. — John Cleese

What I've always wanted to do is be as funny as possible. — John Cleese

I could take an umbrella and balance it on my chin or on my foot. And I just got interested in that kind of thing. And as I played games more and more and got stronger physically, I just became more coordinated. — John Cleese

The writing is the most important bit, and performing it is just closing the circle because I'm less likely to screw it up than anyone else. — John Cleese

As Daniel Levitin writes, our brain is a "giant pattern detector." If we read something that coincides with what we already believe we're more likely to give it credence, while the opposite is not true. — John Cleese

I started to make harder jokes before anyone else did. And the producers would get anxious. They'd say, 'That's a little bit hard-edged, isn't it?' And I'd say, 'Let's just try it and see how the audience reacts. If they don't like it, let's cut it out.' And the audience roared with laughter, so I learned you could do this harder humor and people loved it. — John Cleese

I don't understand why very, very rich people want to have even more money than they've already got. — John Cleese

I have a tendency sometimes to get too logical with what I'm writing, just because I want it to be kind of perfect. — John Cleese

Other people, you know, put a latex rubber on, you know, to become sexually excited. There's so much I don't understand. — John Cleese

When I was in school, I was beaten every 30 minutes. It never did me any harm except for some psychological mal-adjustments and blurred vision. — John Cleese

I want to write a book which is the history of comedy. — John Cleese

I wish you wusses would stop whining about your unhappiness. I'm really fed up with it. Pour yourself a scotch and pull yourself together. Go out and shoot something! — John Cleese

We don't know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops. — John Cleese

Too many people confuse being serious with being solemn. — John Cleese

I don't want to hurt people. — John Cleese

...when you collaborate with someone else on something creative, you get to places that you would never get to on your own. The way an idea builds as it careens back and forth between good writers is so unpredictable. Sometimes it depends on people misunderstanding each other, and that's why I don't think there's any such thing as a mistake in the creative process. You never know where it might lead. — John Cleese

Who's ever going to write a film in which I get the girl? Me! — John Cleese

If you really don't know where to start or if you're stuck, start generating random connections and allow your intuition to tell you if one might lead somewhere interesting. — John Cleese

The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else. — John Cleese

It’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. — John Cleese

Everything in comedy's got to be exactly right, which is why making a comedic film is kind of a difficult process, because, for most of the two years of shooting it and editing it and reshooting and all of that, it's not quite right. And it's only when you just at the end, you put the final polish on it, it becomes really funny again. — John Cleese

This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious. — John Cleese

The World is insane. With tiny spots of sanity, here and there... Not the other way around! — John Cleese

What's the bleedin' point? — John Cleese

Life Lessons by John Cleese

1. John Cleese teaches us to always strive for excellence and to never settle for mediocrity. He encourages us to take risks and to always be open to learning new things.
2. He also emphasizes the importance of having a sense of humor and being able to laugh at yourself. He believes that humor can help us to cope with difficult situations and to stay positive.
3. Finally, Cleese emphasizes the importance of being kind and generous to others, and to always strive to make the world a better place.