Eric Idle Quotes

Working with different people anyway is like life and meeting different people... as long as you can be empathetic, you can take a bit of them on and see what you can do to help their process. That said, my relationship with Woody Allen was trying to hang on his every word so that I could tell everybody what he said afterwards. But certainly, he was a very good example of somebody who you didn't hear talk above a very low volume for the entire time he was on-set.

I feel I can hang out with any group of people and find common ground to talk with them.

The myth of writer as, like, Asperger-style misanthrope, or, like, the Jack Nicholson, 'As Good As It Gets' - it just doesn't work, because writers, in order to write good characters, need to understand people. You need to understand your audience. You need to have so much empathy you could almost encourage empathy in others.

What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people's dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats - and they in turn can listen to ours.

Listening to people keeps them entertained.

I am a communicator; that seems to be my natural place. And I'll always be passionate about the world, because it's so bonkers.

You want people - I want people to relate to me as a character. I want them to go, 'That could have been me,' or, 'I know someone like that.'

Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

Men are not tied together by papers and seals. They are led to associate by resemblances, by conformities, by sympathies.

I always try to get in the back of the audience because people really want to get close to me, and I want to get close to them.

The skill set of pastor and comedian are incredibly similar. You want to affect people. You're good at reading rooms. You're persuasive, and you're likable.

I don't want to bore people with things that don't matter to them. I want to share parts of my life that are universally true with other people.

I'm really interested in how we understand each other - and whether we can understand each other.

I think that human beings are often looking for a reason to relate.

Conversation makes one what he is.

I spend most of my life just listening to people.

When I'm starting to feel, "How many more people are there?" I go slower. I ask questions, and that person engaging with me gives me energy.

Your prospective employer, or the person you have a crush on, or the person you want to talk to. You're judging yourself, you know, thinking about your listener. You're not thinking about what you're saying. And that same thing happens when you write.

Understanding people certainly impacts your ability to communicate with others.

but you can't spend your whole life hoping people will ask you the right questions. you must learn to love and answer the questions they already ask.

In our ordinary experiences with other people, we know that approaching each other in a machinelike way gets us into trouble.

There are men who would quickly love each other if once they were speak to each other; for when they spoke they would discover that their souls had only separated by phantoms and delusions.

To be treated well in places where you don't expect to be treated well, to find things in common with people you thought previously you had very, very little in common with, that can't be a bad thing.

If you respect the audience enough, they can take onboard many things.