Quote

Oscar Wilde was sort of my first love as a young reader. And then I went on to love Jane Austen's wonderful - this sort of comedy coming from her. I mean, all of her books are comic.

Oscar Wilde always makes me smile - with respect and admiration. His short stories prove that it is possible to be both sarcastic, even cynical, but deeply compassionate. Just seeing the cover of one of Wilde's books in a bookshop makes me smile.

I love physical comedy. I love Oscar Wilde, I love Shakespeare comedies, I love improv.

I went to drama school. I'm classically trained; I studied Shakespeare, blah blah blah. But I always preferred to do Oscar Wilde, or Shakespeare's comedies over his dramas.

There's one good kind of writer - a dead one.

I'm lucky enough to work with, I think, the greatest writer there's ever been, Shakespeare. Whose collected works would always be under my pillow if I was only ever allowed one book to keep, and who never bores me.

Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field of suspense.

I love Richard Pryor. I love him to death.

You don't have to be dead to write a classic, and you don't have to be literary to be smart.