If you're famous, you have to [be overly generous], otherwise people say, "Eric Idle came in and only left me $4." I always tip more than people expect.

Many years ago I also bought a house in Provence for about 70,000 francs. It had no electricity or running water, and no road leading to the house, but gradually we made improvements. It's my escape and I love it.

A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate

I try to not to be a celebrity as much as possible.

John Cleese once told me he'd do anything for money. So I offered him a pound to shut up, and he took it.

I live in a Spanish-style hillside home in Los Angeles, California. I paid $900,000 in 1995. It's perhaps worth about $3m now. Thankfully, I paid off my mortgage before the crash because I could see it coming. I worried that I would be caught having to pay off a very high mortgage for a house I couldn't sell.

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.