Latest Steve Coogan Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• All drama teachers are very effusive, very emotionally open, very big, and gesticulate a lot, and are very physical. Those people don't work in banks and they don't work for pharmaceutical companies. They teach drama, or they may be theatre directors. That's why I love people who are openly gay in theatre, because they have license to do what they like, and there's a kind of artistic liberal tolerance thing that goes on.

  Steve Coogan

  Teacher, Drama, Gay

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I do like to make people cringe. That discomfort, tension, embarrassment, pain - all of those things interest me, and not through some sort of masochistic or sadistic impulse. It illuminates what being a human being is. It taps into what it is to be human more incisively than stuff that's just very pedestrian.

  Steve Coogan

  Pain, People, Sadistic

  Source: film.avclub.com

• Comedy can be silly and gross and offensive, as long as there's sort of a point. You can make a joke that, on the face of it, is racist. Ostensibly someone can appear to be racist, but if you know you're making a point about race, and not just being pig-headed, then you can do that. I think some people who don't understand comedy will have a knee-jerk reaction to some stuff, and will always be offended by it because they don't understand it. Some people react to it in a vociferous way, which is unsophisticated, but there's always going to be those people out there.

  Steve Coogan

  Silly, Thinking, Long

  Source: film.avclub.com

• In England, I've done a whole bunch of stuff where I just make a complete ass of myself. I've been doing it for 20 years, so I just gravitate toward it anyway. I'd rather do that than do the stuff where I'm supposed to be trying to look cool in some way. It's more interesting to me.

  Steve Coogan

  Interesting, Trying, Done

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I think I'm good with actors. I like directing actors. I also like to show up and just do an acting gig. Where I'm just a hired gun, I don't have to have an opinion on anything.I never got involved in all this stuff because I wanted to control stuff; I got involved in writing and producing because I wasn't getting interesting acting gigs. In a way I'm grateful that I didn't get interesting roles, because it made me pull my finger out and do some work.

  Steve Coogan

  Grateful, Writing, Gun

  Interview with Alfonso Cuarón, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 5, 2014.

• I think if you try to look for something to show off as an actor, vanity can get the better of you.

  Steve Coogan

  Thinking, Vanity, Trying

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I like comedy, but I like comedy as a device in drama. It's more interesting for me to use comedy to seduce people into thinking about something serious. If you want to hit a beat in a drama, you can distract people with a little comedy, and you can punch them in the gut with some emotion.

  Steve Coogan

  Drama, Thinking, People

  Interview with Alfonso Cuarón, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 5, 2014.

• When I play myself, I want to be a slightly better person. It just agrees. Everything I play about myself is kind of true, but it's amplified. We all edit, don't we? If you're self-aware, you stop yourself - you know how to behave properly.

  Steve Coogan

  Self, Play, Want

  Interview with Alfonso Cuarasn, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 5, 2014.

• I've met people who've dismissed me, and then they find out that they like my work, and suddenly their attitude changes toward me. And I think that's very funny and very human. But it's also very unattractive.

  Steve Coogan

  Attitude, Thinking, People

  Interview with Alfonso Cuarón, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 5, 2014.

• It’s our imperfections that make us vulnerable, make us interesting. How can I make myself a bit of an asshole and still have humanity about it?

  Steve Coogan

  Interesting, Imperfection, Humanity

  Interview with Alfonso Cuarón, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 5, 2014.

• I always think that, even when people behave badly, if you like something deep inside them, then there is a tiny bit of nobility - they wish they could be good.

  Steve Coogan

  Thinking, People, Wish

  Interview with Alfonso Cuarón, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 5, 2014.

• Knowing about comedy has helped me with the drama. To see people laugh, it's like there are moments of catharsis in the middle of sadness.

  Steve Coogan

  Drama, Sadness, Knowing

  "Steve Coogan Doesn’t Believe In Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I think you need to have the guts to not use comedy. Often, the people that work in comedy use a joke to avoid contemplation.

  Steve Coogan

  Thinking, People, Needs

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• What terrifies me is that I might somehow endorse that view so people think they don't have to read books anymore.

  Steve Coogan

  Book, Thinking, Views

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I like the fact that people come together who have shared values, but I don't believe that a man died 2,000 years ago and was crucified on a cross to save me from my original sin.

  Steve Coogan

  Believe, Men, Years

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I knew lots of Irish ladies in my life who would say daft things and then would just say something incredibly truthful in a very simple way with simple language - a few well chosen words that would take an intellectual five minutes to express. I like that.

  Steve Coogan

  Simple, Intellectual, Way

  "Steve Coogan Doesn’t Believe In Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I think there's as much profundity and wisdom in Shakespeare, more so in fact, than those in the Bible.

  Steve Coogan

  Thinking, Facts, Profundity

  "Steve Coogan Doesn’t Believe In Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• The Bible, undoubtedly, is a mixed bag. I don't see myself coming back to the Church. I do like the tradition. If you come from a strong culture, you can decide what you agree with and what you don't agree with. If you're given a blank canvas, it's almost harder in life.

  Steve Coogan

  Strong, Church, Culture

  "Steve Coogan Doesn’t Believe In Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I'm not turned away from the church through anger, although I have criticisms of it. It's through finding affirmation of life and illumination of life through creativity and art.

  Steve Coogan

  Art, Creativity, Illumination

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I'm really encouraged by Pope Francis, because I think his attitude is totally laudable.

  Steve Coogan

  Attitude, Thinking, Pope

  "Steve Coogan Doesn’t Believe In Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• To me, I like and understand ritual and I think it is important. Things that we do that give us comfort are important. Like Christmas, I like to go into a church and hear the carols sung. There's a comfort of actually going inside of a church, I find them serene. They're unchanging.

  Steve Coogan

  Thinking, Giving, Important

  "Steve Coogan Doesn’t Believe In Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• The Church at its best is about empowering the disempowered and giving voice to the dispossessed and not putting a price on everything and not being about the bottom line and not worshipping the market or everything that is material.

  Steve Coogan

  Voice, Giving, Empowering

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• The irony is, of course, that many of the values that I was raised with, that I think are very important, that I hold dear, are the result of a religious faith.

  Steve Coogan

  Religious, Thinking, Important

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• I don't want to go around making everyone else agree with me. I don't feel the need to do that.

  Steve Coogan

  Needs, Want, Feels

  "Steve Coogan Doesn’t Believe In Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

• If you're driving your car and someone winds the window down and gives you the finger and calls you an asshole, instead of giving him the finger back and calling him an asshole back, you just pull a funny face, and he doesn't know how to react to that, because you're using different rules.

  Steve Coogan

  Wind, Giving, Car

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 20, 2008.