Peter Kay Quotes

When I sit and talk with a person, I'm not always paying attention. I'm looking at the person and saying, 'What is it about his or her life that appeals to me?'

One of the reasons I love acting is because I'm so interested in other people's lives, and I often incorporate things I hear or observe into my work. I've become a bit of a 'person addict,' and so I like brushing up against lots of different characters.

I've always been a people-watcher, and as an actor, later, I just mined all those little details.

Sometimes a fan comes up to me, and I'm really interested in how they're acting, so I'll study them and use that in my material.

You're always on duty because you're in a constant state of observation. That's one of the challenges of being a comedian. I think one of the other challenges is that, whether we like it or not, it's a profession that requires failure. It doesn't just encourage failure. It requires it because it's all trial and error. You need to know what doesn't work to know what works.

I don't really write jokes down. I tend to have a premise that I work out and test on stage.

It's very interesting to know what people are doing while you're working on late-night television.

I cannot stress enough that the answer to life's questions is often in people's faces. Try putting your iPhones down once in a while, and look in people's faces. People's faces will tell you amazing things. Like if they are angry, or nauseous or asleep.

I love watching people, guessing what they are going to do next. I'm no Derren Brown, but I love that people stuff. Maybe that's why I'm an actor.

Comedians are really writers who don't have pens and pencils about them, but they riff.

I am a people watcher and I have a very good memory.

I spent my entire childhood observing people. I still do.

I've always been someone who really watches other people, human behavior. To watch it and be able to express it through your version has always been really exciting to me.

I'm a voyeur. I say that with no embarrassment. If I could have a superpower, being invisible would be it, no question. I'm fascinated by human behavior; observing people and seeing how much story gets told without a lot of dialogue, and how much our brain fills in.

I learned a lot just watching people perform.

If you're very open to watching the world go by, with people's different tics, you absorb it all without realizing it and find ways to put something into your character. I'm not sure I'm always aware I'm mimicking someone.

I'm always writing; I'm always jotting things down on paper or making notes in my iPhone. Then I'll make myself sit down and kind of shape it up, but there's really no other way to practice other than onstage.

So, the combination of looking at lots of different people and how they react to each other and how they relate to each other and waiting for that inspiration is the thing that allows me to keep writing.

I tend to stare at people and memorize what they're saying and how they say it.

I love observing both vocally and by sight. So I take on a lot of those elements of people around me.

I prefer to watch people.

Some people compose their thoughts in front of a typewriter but I find that I am better at composing my thoughts in front of an audience.

What makes characters so interesting when you're an actor or a dancer is to watch and observe how people walk and move and speak. Are they cat-like? Are they walrus-like? Why does that person bother me, and why do I think they are the way they are?

Just observing - that's the best skill of all for an actor!

A lot of being a comedian is about observing people.