Quotessence
Home / Authors / Eddie Izzard Books
Eddie Izzard

Eddie Izzard Books

Comedian

Related Quotes

“And there is a rule in every major religion, called the Golden Rule. Essentially: treat other people the way you’d like to be treated yourself. If we all did this, the whole world would work instantaneously. Praying, meditation—fine. But just follow the Golden Rule and the whole world works. Making the world work could be that simple.”

ReligionSpiritualityHumanismGolden Rule
Book:Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
Create image

“I had the luxury of knowing what I wanted to do. So I just sat on the bed and came up with a plan for myself: "I have to go to the Edinburgh Fringe. But I don't have the confidence to do a production there because I've never gone before, and I don't even know how to get there or what to do once I get there. So I will just act as if I do have the confidence to go to the Edinburgh Fringe. I'll just borrow confidence from a future version of myself. Once I've been to the Edinburgh Fringe and performed a show there, then I will have the confidence to go to the Edinburgh Fringe. I will go to the bank manager of confidence (in some part of my brain) and I will borrow that confidence from the future, and then I can wear it like a cloak, and I will talk to everyone with this confidence." It was out there as a concept, but it worked.”

Confidence
Book:Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
Create image

“If you are an LGBT+ person and you come out, you have to go through your knight’s quest to create ground for yourself, to create a space for yourself, to stand there and say, “I exist. I have no reason to feel guilt or shame. I am proud to exist, and while I’m not perfect, I deserve to exist in society just like anyone else.” This became my first big fight. While I consider myself to be fantastically boring, I realized that if I took on my own sexual identity and came out and just told people about it and tried to have a chat with them—tried to be offhand and casual about it—and tried to build our place in society and humanity, then that would be a good mission. This is where I exist in society. I am just this guy. I am transgender, and I exist. But that is just my sexuality. More important than that is that I perform comedy, I perform drama, I run marathons, and I’m an activist in politics. These are the things I do. How you self-identify with your sexuality matters not one wit. What you do in life—what you do to add to the human existence—that is what matters. That is the beautiful thing.”

Human RightsLgbtTransgenderSexual Identity
Book:Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
Create image

“Horseshoes are lucky. Horses have four bits of lucky nailed to their feet. They should be the luckiest animals in the world. They should rule the country. They should win all their horse races, at least. 'In the fifth race today, every single horse was first equal...one horse threw a shoe came in third...the duck was ninth...and five ran.'”

WorldShouldFirstsCountryTodayWinningBitsAnimalRaceFiveFourFeetLuckyEqualThirdsHorseShoesRanDucksFifthHorseshoes
Author:Eddie Izzard
Create image

“When you're more mature, you do start telling the truth, in odd situations. "I'm sorry, I've broken a glass here. Is that expensive? I'll pay for it. I'm sorry." And you do that so that people in the room might go, "What a strong personality that person has. I like to have sex with people with strong personalities."”

PeoplePersonsMightStrongSexRoomsPaySituationBrokenPersonalitySorryGlassesOddExpensiveTelling The TruthMatureI'm SorryStrong PersonStrong Personality
Author:Eddie Izzard
Create image

“I just play to progressive audiences. You know, if they're watching Discovery Channel, History Channel, that kind of thing, "Monty Python" have already laid the groundwork. They're known around the world. People like that kind of surrealist, left-field humor, and that's what I do. And "Saturday Night Live," a lot of American humor. "The Simpsons," above all, the weird, left-field humor, which I love. And sardonic. So that's all I'm doing. I find that audience, and they're in every developed country around the world.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWorldKindCountryPlayNightLeftKnownAudienceFieldsDiscoveryAround The WorldProgressiveSaturdaySaturday NightSaturday Night LivePythonDeveloped CountryMontySurrealistGroundworkSardonicLeft Field
Author:Eddie Izzard
Create image

“This is a world that's big enough for everyone. I like that message in that comes out of John Lasseter, and it comes out Pixar, it comes out of the Apple, Google, the Ben and Jerry's thing. These are American companies that send that message around that is good, that is healthy. And everyone goes, "That's the America I always believed in before Watergate."”

WorldEnoughBigsAmericaCompanyHealthyMessagesApplesGoogleAlways BelieveJerryWatergatePixar
Author:Eddie Izzard
Create image

“My dad said, "As long as you're happy." I used to think it was kind of a very simple idea or philosophy because he wasn't religious. But you've got to try and be happy. And if you're not happy, you can't help anyone else. So obviously, some crazy people could go to places, but I just think you need to be content within yourself, so that's the thing.”

PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsTryingKindLongSaidIdeasPhilosophyHelpingUsedReligiousSimpleCrazyDadMy DadNot HappyCrazy PeopleSimple Ideas
Author:Eddie Izzard
Create image

“Drag for me is costume, and what I'm trying to do is, sometimes I'll go around and wear makeup in the streets, turn up to the gig, take the makeup off, do the show, and then put the makeup back on. It's the inverse of drag. It's not about artifice. It's about me just expressing myself. So when I'm campaigning in London for politics, I campaign with makeup on and the nails. It's just what I have on, like any woman.”

TryingSometimesShowsTurnsStreetsLondonCampaignsMakeupDragNailsCostumesGigsArtificeCampaigningInverse
Author:Eddie Izzard
Create image