Latest Stephen Fry Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Things are always worse in the steady watches of the night.

  Stephen Fry

  Night, Watches, Steady

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• I like people who are as unlike me as possible, which is not an expression of self disgust or self hatred, but it's just that you know you obviously particularly admire things that you recognize yourself as not having.

  Stephen Fry

  Self, Expression, People

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• I'm absolute attacking my own instinct for politeness, but I think I admire artists who just speak out or who are strong, so it's very hard.

  Stephen Fry

  Strong, Artist, Thinking

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• When you take a lot of cocaine powder you tend to take a lot of alcohol with it as well, so for many years really I never went out without at least four or five grams of cocaine powder.

  Stephen Fry

  Years, Alcohol, Four

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• You don't get depressed because bad things happen to you. That's getting pissed off and annoyed. That's reasonable. Someone hits you in the face you go ow, you know that's... but depression is something that happens like weather to you inside you.

  Stephen Fry

  Weather, Annoyed, Pissed Off

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• The most natural way you would attempt to cope with something inside you that is affecting your moods and your energy levels is to intervene with chemicals to help and because medical science hasn't come up with pharmaceuticals that do particularly well you tend to reach for the chemicals that are outside the Pharma counter, i.e. narcotics and alcohol because they can guarantee your mood more or less.

  Stephen Fry

  Alcohol, Energy, Guarantees

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• I think people talk about one love, but there is the need to love and the need to be loved are not the same thing and I suppose that's... and it's working that out is part of growing up.

  Stephen Fry

  Growing Up, Thinking, People

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• Why should I be depressed? I've got enough money. I've got a job. People like me. There is no to be depressed. That's at stupid as saying there is no reason to have asthma or there is no reason to have the measles. You know you've got it. It's there. It's not about reason.

  Stephen Fry

  Jobs, Stupid, People

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• Most of the problem I see amongst friends and I've experienced amongst myself is when people haven't accommodated the inequality that they want, they haven't understood that their partner wants to give more love and receive less or they haven't understood that their partner wants to receive more, but sort of give less.

  Stephen Fry

  People, Giving, Want

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• I've always been aware of my sexuality, but I never quite knew what it meant.

  Stephen Fry

  Never Quit, Sexuality

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• One of the reasons I love the online world is that although that exists in abundance you can choose absolutely which part of the online world you want to live in. You can make your own kingdom in that sense.

  Stephen Fry

  World, Want, Kingdoms

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• Families where there is not much laughter I think are signs of some sort of dysfunctionality or sickness.

  Stephen Fry

  Laughter, Thinking, Sickness

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• As children everyone thinks their family is weird and they're upset by the weirdness of their own family.

  Stephen Fry

  Children, Thinking, Upset

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• What makes a good family? Well, I suppose obviously love. Love lubricated often I think by humor. I think a family that can laugh at each other and tease themselves and who are able to be jolly with each other I think is the key.

  Stephen Fry

  Thinking, Keys, Laughing

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• If we empower ourselves with responsibility over our actions, responsibility over our destinies and responsibility for directing and maintaining and creating our own ethical and moral frameworks, which is the most important thing really isn’t it because perhaps the greatest insult to humanism is this idea that mankind needs a god in order to have a moral framework.

  Stephen Fry

  Responsibility, Destiny, Order

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• If there were a God he would want us to be better spirited than to take his word for everything.

  Stephen Fry

  Want, Spirited, Want U

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• The Greeks understood perfectly that if there were divine beings they are capricious, unkind, malicious mostly, temperamental, envious and mostly deeply unpleasant because that you can say well yes, all right, if there is going to be god or gods then you have to admit that they're very at the very least capricious. They're certainly not consistent. They're certainly not all loving.

  Stephen Fry

  Greek, Envious, Divine

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• I can understand the Greek idea that there are these these principles of lightening or of war or of wisdom and to embody them, to personify them into a Athena or Aries or whichever god you want makes enormous sense.

  Stephen Fry

  War, Ideas, Greek

  "Big Think Interview With Stephen Fry". bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• There is not any way that you can just choose the nice bits and say that means there is a God and ignore the true fact of what nature is.

  Stephen Fry

  Nice, Mean, Way

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• If I were to believe in a god l would believe in gods. I think monotheism is the really ghastly thing. That is the absolutely staggering to me misapprehension.

  Stephen Fry

  Believe, Thinking, Staggering

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• I suppose that there is no point wasting time being lazy, though of course indolence in a divine way, actually has its advantages.

  Stephen Fry

  Lazy, Way, Wasting Time

  "Big Think Interview With Stephen Fry". bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• Atheism comes into rather a bad press and I suppose I'd rather describe myself as a humanist... I don't believe in God. I don't believe there is a God.

  Stephen Fry

  Believe, Atheism, Humanist

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• It may be that there is an afterlife and I'll look incredibly stupid, but at least I will have had a crammed pre afterlife, a crammed life, so to me the most important thing is you know as Kipling put it. [...] To fill every unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run.

  Stephen Fry

  Running, Distance, Stupid

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• If you think you're going to have an eternity in which you can talk to Mozart and Chopin and Schopenhauer on a cloud and learn stuff and you know really get to grips with knowledge and understanding and so you won't bother now, I think it's a terrible, a terrible mistake.

  Stephen Fry

  Mistake, Thinking, Clouds

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.

• The most important philosophy I think is that even if it isn't true you must absolutely assume there is no afterlife.

  Stephen Fry

  Philosophy, Thinking, Afterlife

  "The Importance of Unbelief". Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 8, 2009.