Steve Coogan Quotes

In Britain, it's bred into you, the idea that you can't really change anything, so why bother. When I went to school in America, it was the total opposite view - you, as an individual, can change anything and everything. It's how you're raised.

England as a culture has endured so much more than America has as a culture, so it's given them a different perspective.

The difference between being a rich guy in America and a rich guy in Europe is that in America people look up to you for being rich.

In America, if your next-door neighbor has a Rolls-Royce, you want one too. But in England, if your neighbor has a Rolls-Royce, you want him to die in a fiery accident. That's a quote from someone else, but there's something about American optimism, that feeling you can do anything if you're at least middle class in America. If I can have a writing career, anyone can. There's nothing special about me.

But America isn't a country of family values; Mexico is a country of family values. This is a country of people who leave home.

Far less envy in America than in France.

We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy,or we cannot be content. In America we manifest this in all the ancient and customary ways. In public we scoff at titles and hereditary privilege, but privately we hanker after them, and when we get a chance we buy them for cash and a daughter.

You know, we do a lot of complaining here in America. And that itself is something they can't do in a lot of other countries.

There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America there is a touch of shame when a man exhibits theevidences of large property, as if after all it needed apology. But the Englishman has pure pride in his wealth, and esteems it a final certificate. A coarse logic rules throughout all English souls: if you have merit, can you not show it by your good clothes and coach and horses?

British girls are as temperamental as Americans.

American actors are all muscular, tanned, white teeth and they have this indestructible confidence. We British are all... Dare I say it? Pessimistic.

Far less envy in America than in France, and far less wit.

I feel like old age in America is a very sad thing. I have been many different places around the world where getting older is something you look forward to.

Montreal is more Canadian and more British than Toronto. Toronto is more Canadian and more British than Winnipeg. Why? Because at Quebec thanks to the preponderance of the French language, you are better protected from the American invasion ...

You may as well know that one American national trait which irritates many Americans and must be convenient for our critics is that we relentlessly advertise our imperfections.

I think Americans have always been pretty outspoken. I always found that if you had emotions in England, it's like, 'Here's a cup of tea.'

I think we're all guilty of it as British citizens: if something gets big, we go, 'Ugh.'

America is a country in which I see the most persistant idealism and the blandest of cynicism and the race is on between its vitality and its decadence.

It all looks American because America, the country that invented mass capitalism and consumerism, got there first. the impact of mass capitalism is now universal.

When jazz is played in another nation, it is called American. When it is played in another country, it sounds false. Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.

I don't really know what Americans are like. I've no idea. I know a few things about them. In my imagination, they have warm peachy hearts, whereas the English have horrible spiteful withered hearts - success in England inspires envy - in America, it inspires hope.

When you go to that other country you realize that in France and in England, you don't ask somebody what they do for a living when you meet someone. A lot of the obvious things, the shortcuts we take in America - in America you can talk about money all you want. You can ask how much they make, rent they pay, how much their house costs and how much their car costs, and they'll feel comfortable telling you. But it's scandalous to ask anyone in England or France a question like that.

No stigma attaches to the love of money in America, and provided it does not exceed the bounds imposed by public order, it is held in honor. The American will describe as noble and estimable ambition that our medieval ancestors would have called base cupidity.

In lighthearted countries, people joked about this phenomenon, but such serious, practical countries as England, America, and Germany were deeply concerned.

In America, there seems to be more focus on the idea that it's important to do things differently. In Britain, it's not an issue.