8 Quotes & Sayings By Christopher Guest

Christopher Guest is a renowned and prolific writer, director and actor. His career spans more than six decades and includes the mockumentary genre. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won two Emmy Awards, as well as having won a Grammy, a Tony Award and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award. He has been nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Read more

In 2000 he received the Best Director Award from the Independent Spirit Awards for his direction of A Mighty Wind. He was ranked No. 33 on Entertainment Weekly's list of 100 Greatest Directors.

1
I started on the clarinet. I was going to a music school - my mother took me - and the guy said, 'What do you want to play?' I said the drums, and my mother said, 'No, you don't. You don't want to play the drums.' So I said, 'Maybe the trumpet would be cool.' And my mother said, 'I don't think so.' And then the clarinet was handed to me. Christopher Guest
2
I talk to people of different ages, and a guy who's 38 who says, 'I could've played Major League Baseball, but I had this knee injury...' Yeah, probably not. It's a big thing with men and sports, where they think they could have touched that thing. Christopher Guest
3
In the kind of films that I do, there is an extremely limited number of people that can improvise. The reason the ensemble continues in the movies is because those are the people that can do that kind of work. It's not just an accident those people are in the film. Christopher Guest
4
As an actor, I trust my ear. Christopher Guest
5
People want me to be funny all the time. They think I'm being funny no matter what I say or do and that's not the case. Christopher Guest
6
I get asked, 'Who would you really like to work with?' I'm already working with them. Smart, talented, funny people, good musicians, an extended family, good friends. Christopher Guest
7
What's interesting about Laurel and Hardy is that in most comedy teams, there's a straight man, and then there's the funny guy. And with Laurel and Hardy, they're both the funny guy. Christopher Guest