Christopher Guest

“We heard about people who went backstage at dog shows with scissors and cut parts of a poodle's hair off to sabotage the dog.”

“As an actor, I trust my ear.”

“I talk to people of different ages, and a guy who's 38 who says, 'I could've played Major League Baseball, but I had this knee injury...' Yeah, probably not. It's a big thing with men and sports, where they think they could have touched that thing.”

“'The Office' is an amazing show. So is 'Extras.'”

“The minute the money is more, you lose your control, so then there's no point.”

“I've never seen a reality show. I don't watch television.”

“I get asked, 'Who would you really like to work with?' I'm already working with them. Smart, talented, funny people, good musicians, an extended family, good friends.”

“You can't improvise without a skeletal structure; you can't just go in and start talking. This is a very misunderstood craft because no one else makes movies like this.”

“I myself delve into very arcane things.”

“Many times I'll improvise it, which isn't done a lot in movies or commercials. But a lot of my commercials are improvised.”

“I spent more time in America, but I developed a very English sense of humour. I clicked into it deeply with Peter Sellers, who is still probably my favourite comedian.”

“I guess there's something that's appealing to me about people that are aspirational-slash-deluded.”

“When you've been a character in a movie - and this has happened when we've done concerts as Spinal Tap or as The Folksmen - people see you as characters walking out of a movie. And you appear in public, then, to play, it's a very schizophrenic thing.”

“'Waiting For Guffman' was different right away from 'Spinal Tap,' because we didn't show the interviewer. That person became invisible immediately. That created a different way of tuning it and ultimately editing it.”

“I didn't go to film school. I had been an actor in movies, I had been in plays, and then I just sort of jumped into it.”

“The movies have a way of seeping out there over time. We don't put them in 2,000 theaters. It wouldn't work that way.”

“People who take themselves too seriously, who can't see anything else, are usually funny.”

“I love being with my family and just being a regular person.”

“The reason I work with the same people, it's not just an accident.”

“I watch mostly documentaries and things that aren't remotely funny.”