“Mr. Bean is essentially a child trapped in the body of a man. All cultures identify with children in a similar way, so he has this bizarre global outreach.”

We put a lot more value, or at least I personally put a lot more value, on the creative values and creative challenges of something than the commercial necessities.

I enjoy it when it’s over! I enjoy whatever success we have. If an audience finds it funny, then it’s been worth it.

Look, if I’d wanted a lecture on the rights of man, I’d have gone to bed with Martin Luther.

Mr. Bean had a very good chance of being successful and long-running.

Mr. Bean is at his best when he is not using words, but I am equally at home in both verbal and nonverbal expression.

I think I have an inner confidence that my tastes are pretty simple, that what I find funny finds a wide audience.

If you want to be strong learn to live alone.

I think you’re bound to get a sense of any character that you play. It’s not something you often do in comedy.

Enjoy your own company instead of expecting someone else make you happy.

I would never wish to say that I’ve finally waved goodbye to any character, it’s just that the emphasis tends to shift.

Nope, I don’t enjoy work generally. Not because I’m lazy; it’s just all so stressful and worrying.

I have a problem with Porsches. They’re wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one.

Marketing is what gets you noticed, and that side of it something – this side of it, if you like, doing interviews – is the side of it that I least enjoy, and yet is 50% of the project.

We must be allowed to insult each other.

I can be reasonably funny and light-hearted when I’m in the company of good friends, but I’m not a jokesmith. I tend to be quite serious.

For telling a good and incisive religious joke, you should be praised. For telling a bad one, you should be ridiculed and reviled. The idea that you could be prosecuted for the telling of either is quite fantastic.

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

I’m a firm believer in research, but I’m also a firm believer in utilizing the instincts that are within your soul or in your body or in your stomach, wherever they reside.

My foot, for a football player, is very beautiful!

Every day, we’ve got to do something physical. It’s mind, body and spirit.

Because I’m fairly big, I like to use my body. So I’ll control the ball, even when there’s a player on me, and then I’ll pass.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

To meditate is to observe yourself, for you are totally responsible for your body, mind, thought.

The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must retain great strength in your mind and words.