Now thyself is more important than “Know thyself.

You want to be as smart as you can about being stupid.

There's an army story in me, and I think there's a WWII Brooks film somewhere.

We want to get people laughing; we don't want to offend anybody.

I always thought it was great to be able to make people feel better. It was a little like being God.

A cinema villain essentially needs a moustache so he can twiddle with it gleefully as he cooks up his next nasty plan.

The Twelve Chairs is about the same thing. It's all about money or love. We know we need money, we know we have to get money, we know we have to hurt others to get money. But we don't know until maybe it's a little too late in life that love is the most important thing. Love, friendship, affection, bonhomie, whatever. Those are the only things that really count: to love and be loved.