"I was thrilled to win a Tony in 2005 for 'Spamalot'." — Eric Idle

My education was paid for by the RAF Benevolent Fund, so a charity school, run like an orphanage, with uniforms and beatings. It was tough, but it got me to Cambridge - like being a chrysalis suddenly becoming a butterfly.

Talent is always more interesting - ambition is not interesting. If you have talent, you have to find ways of expressing it, but you may not be a success in the world's terms.

I listen to the audience and try and bounce with them. All audiences are different. But they are all homo sapiens.

Nobody gets irony anymore, as we are now living in the post-ironic age. Once George Bush gets a library, our irony is dead.

The Minister of Transport issued this appeal to motorists: Can anyone give him a lift to Leicester?

I love stage work. The thing about plays is that they're perfectible. With film, you shoot that take and maybe another. During 'Spamalot,' I rewrote Act II three times.

John Cleese once told me he'd do anything for money. So I offered him a pound to shut up, and he took it.

It's such fun to take a lot of people and create something silly.

Showcase

Show all

I was thrilled to win a Tony in 2005 for 'Spamalot'.