Latest Rowan Atkinson Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I'm sure that a French production of this [Maigret series] would be different. For better or worse, who's to say, but probably not very good for 8 o'clock on ITV.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Different, Would Be, Clock

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• One of the conventions that I always liked was Doctor Zhivago, where everything that's written on the screen is in Russian but everyone speaks English. That seemed to me to be quite a good convention to follow.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Doctors, Speak English, Conventions

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• We haven't made any particular decision [on Maigret], I haven't been asked if I want to carry on with it. All these things are a matter of whether you feel as though the idea is developing and whether it's still interesting to play.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Play, Ideas, Interesting

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• At the moment, I'm certainly not thinking 'never again', but neither am I thinking 'I can't wait to play that part again'. I'm somewhere in between.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Thinking, Play, Waiting

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• Although the great frustration about this [role] is the fact that there's one thing Maigret never does, and that's drive. He's always driven, or he takes the train, or he gets the bus. I was saying 'Well, why don't we ring the changes for the 21st Century, and stick him in the car?'. [Executive Producer and son of the author, John Simenon] said, 'Well, you can if you want, but there'll be lots of people who won't like it'. So he's a non-driver ... But no, Top Gear was never a consideration for me; and neither was I asked

  Rowan Atkinson

  Son, Frustration, Car

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• I would never be a television presenter. It's not something I could ever do.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Television, Presenter

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• Certainly in the second film [Maigret's Dead Man], which is quite a more unpleasant and darker story, it's quite different in tone and feel.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Men, Tone, Different

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• [Georges] Simenon could be very brave like that. You never quite know what you're going to get or how the story's going to be told.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Brave, Stories, Never Quit

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• I've read about eight or ten of the original novels, and one of them is where Maigret's in bed for the entire story! His wife is running around and solving the case!

  Rowan Atkinson

  Running, Eight, Wife

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• The Maigret stories are all very different in terms of the content and the way that the stories are told. They're not what I would call formulaic.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Different, Stories, Way

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• [Maigret Sets a Trap] was always going to be the first film, and it seemed to be quite a nice story. But of course it meant that here I was playing this new character for the first time, in a place where he had been a relative failure, as all these people had been murdered and the pressure was on. Rather than starting optimistically with his pipe in front of the fireplace, he was in quite a difficult place.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Nice, Character, People

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• The character [Maigret] is bound to change and develop, and I wouldn't like to claim that we are perfectly formed straight out of the box. I think it's what I'd call an 'optimistic start'. As you know, for me, no glass is anything other than half empty, so I apologise for my reticence in terms of promoting this programme.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Optimistic, Character, Thinking

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• The first couple of weeks of filming were quite tricky for me to find my feet with the character [Maigret], which wasn't helped by the story that we were telling.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Couple, Character, Feet

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• [Maigret] is terribly self-contained, not that I would ever wish him to be any more comic, particularly, but in the second film we've made you see he's a little more ironic from time to time. But as I say, that's just work in progress.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Self, Ironic, Wish

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• [Maigret] is more internal. I think if we made more of these I might let him out a bit.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Thinking, Might, Made

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• When you play a serious role, as far as I'm concerned, I feel I'm using exactly the same skills, whatever they are, to play the role as you do with something more obviously comic. It's slightly different muscles, but the same skill set.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Play, Skills, Serious

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• I'm not looking for anything other than an interesting role to play.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Play, Interesting, Roles

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• Art is something that nobody laughs at and nobody makes any money out of is the attitude, which I would dispute.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Art, Attitude, Laughing

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• The one thing I would never wish it to be thought is that you play serious roles in order to achieve some sort of respectability which you can't if you're playing comedic roles.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Order, Play, Wish

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• I don't think you should be too absolutist about what you play and what you don't play.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Thinking, Play, Should

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• I don't really have plans like that [move towards more dramatic acting].

  Rowan Atkinson

  Moving, Acting, Dramatic

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

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

  Rowan Atkinson

  Goodbye, Character, Wish

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• The arts community still has a long lasting cynicism of the importance, or the artistic value, of comedy. Comedy is just farting about for money.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Art, Long, Community

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• It is very linear storytelling, and I think that's not so much the fashion. I was watching a new drama the other night which was extremely non-linear, where you flash back and flash forward in ways that certainly keeps you on your toes as the audience. There's not much of that courage with the storytelling in our Maigret film.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Fashion, Drama, Thinking

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk

• This is sort of inflection-free acting [playing Maigret], and I really wasn't sure if I could do it - you make your mind up on whether I've succeeded or not. But yes, I found it difficult when we were shooting; it was a couple of weeks before I settled into not worrying - to finding a way of delivering those lines - so my worries of many months before I think had been justified. I found it a difficult way of being.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Couple, Thinking, Worry

  Source: news.tvguide.co.uk