Selected Quotes by Ricky Gervais
"Enjoy life. Have fun. Be kind. Have worth. Have friends. Be honest. Laugh. Die with dignity. Make the most of it. It’s all we’ve got."
Ricky Gervais, Life
"People confuse the subject of the joke with the target of the joke, and they’re very rarely the same."
Ricky Gervais, Happiness
"That’s the buzz for me, the creative process. An idea is never as good as when it’s in your head. And then it’s just how little you ruin it."
Ricky Gervais, Ideas
"When I was about to be famous, I feared it on a few levels. I feared it because I didn’t want people to lump me in with those people who’d do anything to be famous. I didn’t like the word ‘celebrity.’ I feared intrusion, you know? Make me famous, and suddenly you can go through my trash bins."
Ricky Gervais, Success
"I think being nice is more important than being clever."
Ricky Gervais, Kindness, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Science is constantly proved all the time. If we take something like any fiction, any holy book, and destroyed it, in a thousand years’ time, that wouldn’t come back just as it was. Whereas if we took every science book and every fact and destroyed them all, in a thousand years they’d all be back because all the same tests would be the same result."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Science
"I think it’s important to hold a mirror up to society and yourself."
Ricky Gervais, Goals, Society
"Stupidity without malice isn’t horrible; some people can’t help it."
Ricky Gervais, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say ‘Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…’ If they say ‘Just God. I only believe in the one God,’ I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"I never think of myself as a celebrity – or even an actor, actually. I think of myself as a writer-director."
Ricky Gervais, Success, Work
"We only do what we think is good and what we’re happy with. I’d rather have something that’s completely mine fail than something succeed that I’m not proud of."
Ricky Gervais, Goals
"If there is a God, why did he make me an atheist?"
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"I think sometimes you get given a good pile of goodwill, and it’s whether you use it up in the first six months or spread it out over a career."
Ricky Gervais, Work
"Dear Religion, This week I safely dropped a man from space while you shot a child in the head for wanting to go to school. Yours, Science."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Science
"People have let me down in the past. I’ve loved something, and it’s become a disgrace. I’d rather start again."
Ricky Gervais, Life
"The grass isn’t always greener on the other side!"
Ricky Gervais, Life
"Comedy and drama are different sides of the same coin. And the thing about comedy and drama is about likability. It’s about character first. It’s about the story. And for me, it’s about empathy, and I think the more real someone is, the further you can go either way with them."
Ricky Gervais, Art
"Where there’s a will – there’s a relative!"
Ricky Gervais, Wealth
"Same-sex marriage isn’t a gay privilege, it’s equal rights. Privilege would be something like gay people not paying taxes. Like churches don’t."
Ricky Gervais, Sex, Justice, Belief
"There’s no difference between fame and infamy now. There’s a new school of professional famous people that don’t do anything. They don’t create anything."
Ricky Gervais, Success
"I could always take a joke. I could always be the butt of the joke. I could always hand it out. That was just who I was."
Ricky Gervais, Happiness
"Why buy a book when you can join a library?"
Ricky Gervais, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The world is bigger than all the parts. That’s the important thing, and one thing can throw everything off-kilter. And you must never let yourself off. You’ll let yourself off by mistake. So you shouldn’t do it consciously. You have to be above it all and just be very disciplined with it. Just be very disciplined with it."
Ricky Gervais, Life
"I think you can make fun of anything except things people can’t help. They can’t help their race or their sex or their age, so you ridicule their pretension or their ego instead. You can ridicule ideas – ideas don’t have feelings. You can ridicule an idea that someone holds without hurting them."
Ricky Gervais, Happiness
"The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Truth
"Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. And you don’t know whether you’re in a trough until you’re climbing out, or on a peak until you’re coming down. And that’s it you know, you never know what’s round the corner. But it’s all good."
Ricky Gervais, Life
"It’s a privilege to be in such a great category of people and… I don’t believe in God, so I’d like to thank dogs. Dogs have given me everything."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"With Netflix, I browse; I watch documentaries about things I’d never dream of, but I think, ’I might as well.’"
Ricky Gervais, Technology
"A Christian telling an atheist they’re going to hell is as scary as a child telling an adult they’re not getting any presents from Santa."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"The best advice I’ve ever received is, ‘No one else knows what they’re doing either.’"
Ricky Gervais, Life
"Everything I do is somehow rooted in humanity. It’s always about people; it’s always about ego. It’s always about desperation. It’s quite existential. You know, ‘Am I leading a good life?’ That might be because I’m an atheist, and I think this is all we’ve got, so you better be nice. And have fun."
Ricky Gervais, Goals, Belief
"I think doing something creative is the most important thing to me, and I think it’s probably just good for the soul for anyone, whatever it is. You don’t have to be a film director – you can do gardening or something – but I think everyone needs to create something."
Ricky Gervais, Goals
"Honor is a gift a man gives himself. You can be as good as anyone that ever lived. If you can read, you can learn everything that anyone ever learned. But you’ve got to want it."
Ricky Gervais, Life, Intelligence/Wisdom
"If you can’t joke about the most horrendous things in the world, what’s the point of jokes? What’s the point in having humor? Humor is to get us over terrible things."
Ricky Gervais, Happiness
"That’s the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end, leads to liberation and dignity."
Ricky Gervais, Truth, Freedom
"Telling someone with depression to pull themselves together is about as useful as telling someone with cancer to just stop having cancer."
Ricky Gervais, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Remember, when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It is only painful for others. The same applies when you are stupid."
Ricky Gervais, Death, Intelligence/Wisdom
"It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"Your critics want you to be as unhappy, unfulfilled, and unimportant as they are. Let your happiness eat them up from inside."
Ricky Gervais, Criticism, Happiness
"Beliefs do not change facts. Facts, if one is rational, should change beliefs."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Truth
"I am not a wolf in sheep’s clothing, I’m a wolf in wolf’s clothing."
Ricky Gervais, Truth
"Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right."
Ricky Gervais, Life
"Remember, if you don’t sin, then Jesus died for nothing."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"Unlike religious people, I look at all religions equally."
Ricky Gervais, Belief
"You can laugh at anything. It depends on the joke."
Ricky Gervais, Happiness
"You do your own thing and you see if you survive."
Ricky Gervais, Life
"I think everyone has the ability to be loved."
Ricky Gervais, Love
"You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway."
Ricky Gervais, Belief, Kindness
"Mondays are fine. It’s your life that sucks."
Ricky Gervais, Life
"Famous people are above the law."