Rowan Atkinson Quotes

Quotes by and about Rowan Atkinson

(Continued from his main entry on the site.)

Atkinson: "'I am not intolerant,' say many ... softly spoken, highly-educated, liberal-minded people: 'I am only intolerant of intolerance.' And people tend to nod sagely and say, 'Oh, wise words, wise words,' and yet if you think about this supposedly inarguable statement for longer than five seconds, you realize that all it is advocating is the replacement of one kind of intolerance with another. Which to me doesn't represent any kind of progress at all."

Atkinson: "The clear problem with the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism is easily construed as insult. Ridicule is easily construed as insult. Sarcasm, unfavourable comparison, merely stating an alternative point of view can be interpreted as insult."