ERIC IDLE

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

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.

I'm more surprised than anyone that 'Spamalot's done so well. You can never predict what's going to be a hit.

We've discovered that the less we do, the more money we make.

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

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.

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

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

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go in a corner and cry by myself for hours.

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

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

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

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

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.

To me, the musical is best when it's a musical comedy. So if you have a very, very funny show, and very good, funny songs, that's what the musical does best.

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

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

You initially become funny as a kid because you're looking for attention and love. Psychologists think that's all to do with mother abandonment. I think John Cleese has his depressions, and Terry Gilliam's the same. All of us together make one completely insane person.

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.

The Minister of Transport issued this appeal to motorists: Can anyone give him a lift to Leicester?

A website can be very time-intensive, but I'd love to have one where people can contribute to it - like invent islands and make their own flags, and their own laws. I think that'd be kind of fun.

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

You look just like you!

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

Life took over 4 billion years to evolve into you, and you've about 70 more years to enjoy it. Don't just pursue happiness, catch it.