Brendan Gleeson Quotes

Show me a novel that's not comic, and I'll show you a novel that's not doing its job.

I think any decent comedy worth its salt has to have heart, otherwise it's just a bunch of jokes. I think people enjoy comedies that have a heart and soul to them.

I always found that drama, really good drama, has a lot of comedy in it.

Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.

A good comic explores the imagination, but it's always got to have those notes of truth running through it.

I don't think that there's necessarily a side to drama that has to be completely bleak. You have to have a flicker of humor 'cause everyone has a flicker of humor, something they find funny in life.

I had a strong vision for 'The Best Man Holiday,' so I was able to translate that to the actors and ultimately to the screen. Things can't get too heavy or too outrageously funny; it has to strike a balance. Tone is everything. If you've set the right tone, you can get away with a lot of stuff. You can get away with making people cry.

I think that there's a fine line between comedy and drama.

I think, through comedy, sometimes we're allowed to discuss things that you'd never be able to talk about in a drama.

You know, what I like about 'The Family Tree' is it's a kitchen sink movie; you can't think of anything that it doesn't either throw into the story for conflict or poke fun at or attack, even, so I like it.

My main point is to be funny; if I can slip a message in there, fine.

I do idiosyncratic dramedies.

You cannot have the drama without comedy.

Comedy is very disarming. It's a way to talk about things and still be light-hearted. And when it's done really well, you never see the strings, whereas when you watch an infomercial or a politician speaking, a lot of times you can see the strings, you can see what agenda they're trying to push.

When we wrote 'Avenue Q,' we worked hard to create something that could be funny and satirical but also had some surprise moments of heart, moments when the music itself could become a central player and create something sweet and moving.

I always want to lead with comedy but hopefully be able to sneak my message through at the same time.

I think the best dramas are as funny as possible and the best comedies have, underneath them, real substance.

I don't think that 'No Man's Land' is a comedy. I think that it's a serious film with a good sense of humour.

Satire and comedy are really the only film mediums where you can get into ideas and have people leave the theater without being moralized.

I think it helped that 'Fleabag' had such a dramatic arc to it, even though it was disguised as a comedy.

I'd love to do a really juicy drama that's just really real. On the comedy side, I'd love to do something like '21 Jump Street.' I cannot stop watching that movie. Really funny, really extreme comedies are definitely my favorite.

A sitcom isn't usually the right tool for satire.

I think comedy does have that powerful thing that doesn't seem too preachy because you're also making people laugh, so it's really kind of a good tool for messaging.

Once we got over the origin story, we could really delve deeper into their lives and characters and angst. So this movie actually has more heart, more humor.

Sometimes people get mad at The Simpsons' subversive story telling, but there's another message in there, which is a celebration of making wild, funny stories.