Ben Elton Quotes

"I try hard not to preach, but I get carried away, which is a mistake, but it's a risk worth running."
-Ben Elton

"Most of my work isn't directly autobiographical. It tends to be an amalgam of things I've seen and heard and thought and conversations I've had."
-Ben Elton

"People who get through life dependent on other people's possessions are always the first to lecture you on how little possessions count."
-Ben Elton

"No collection of people who are all waiting for the same thing are capable of holding a natural conversation. Even if the thing they are waiting for is only a taxi."
-Ben Elton

"We've all got to look at ourselves, start with yourself, that's all you can do. I believe that we can act responsibly as a group, it's just that there are vested interests telling us not to bother."
-Ben Elton

"My advice to anyone adapting a novel is that once they've read it and learnt to understand it, then they must throw it away and never look at it again!"
-Ben Elton

"Most of my stand-up comedy is about being a small, scared, neurotic individual among the billions of other small, scared, neurotic individuals that make up the mass which is us. I always think the first target of a stand-up comic should be themselves-we all share our weaknesses, and it's fun to use them as a source of comedy."
-Ben Elton

"Even if it sounds pretentious, which it isn't-I've found it artistically challenging to produce a monologue that is filled with laughter and ideas. It's a tough thing to pull off, but satire is better if it has conviction behind it."
-Ben Elton