A biography for John Oliverhasn’t been written yet.
“When you've married someone who's been at war, there is nothing you can do that compares to that level of selflessness and bravery.”
“There is no greater anesthetic than sport.”
“There's never any time I think I'm a real journalist, because I don't have any of the qualifications or the intentions for that.”
“Veterans' issues are quite close to my heart. I find it quite hard to talk about, actually.”
“As any Brit will understand, things get a little easier when you don't have to be number one any more. Really, the fall of an empire is not as bad as everyone thinks. It's like retirement. People fear retirement, but it can turn out be rather pleasant.”
“I get nostalgic for British negativity. There is an inherent hope and positive drive to New Yorkers. When you go back to Britain, everybody is just running everything down. It's like whatever the opposite of a hug is.”
“Attending a Sarah Palin rally was simultaneously one of the strangest and most chilling events of my life.”
“It really helps a comedian to be an outsider.”
“Congress never loses its capacity to disappoint you.”
“I've made so many people angry that they kind of blur into one unpleasant memory of people staring at you with somewhere between passive aggression and active aggression.”
“You have to do stand-up quite a long time before you learn how to do it well.”
“The German language is so sonorous, isn't it? Beautiful language...the language of poetry. Angry, angry poetry.”
“I have exactly as much rhythm as you think I have.”
“I can't relax. I find vacations problematic.”
“You just try to be true to your idea of what is funny and what is also interesting.”
“In improv, the whole thing is that it is a relationship between the two people, as a back and forth. In standup, you don't really want to be listening to what somebody is saying; you want to project your jokes into their face.”
“People in Britain see Richard Quest as a kind of an offensive cartoon character.”
“The moment I accept that there's an artistic, redeeming quality in puns, I have a horrible feeling I'll get hooked.”
“It's pretty physically unsettling, living life on a visa.”
“The disconnect between America and its military is shocking.”