Rory Bremner Quotes

I love the 6 Nations rugby. I feel very Scottish then. I feel very Scottish now, sitting in the middle of Chelsea. But that's part of our heritage - being part of Britain, part of Europe. I love being European.

— Rory Bremner

Maybe we like our politicians to appear like bumbling oafs. It certainly never did Ronald Reagan or George Bush any harm. The Italians still seem enamoured of Silvio Berlusconi - a man whose entry into a room is less likely to be greeted with the Italian national anthem than by the Benny Hill theme tune.

— Rory Bremner

I think comedy and satire are a very important part of democracy, and it's important we are able to laugh at the idiosyncrasies or the follies or vanities of people in power.

— Rory Bremner

“I don't think my life would be significantly poorer if I don't impersonate Nick Clegg. Life is short enough without sitting up night after night listening to tapes of him.”

— Rory Bremner

“I remember driving home one evening while they were reviewing the papers on the radio. One of the articles was about me separating from my wife. It's a weird thing to listen to a news report about the break-up of your marriage.”

— Rory Bremner

“I am just fascinated by this reassurance from a menacing figure. It is rather frightening.”

— Rory Bremner

“British politics is more nuanced. Part of the problem with New Labour is that they are a moving target.”

— Rory Bremner

“I am more relaxed at home in Scotland, and my children are of an age where I want us, as a family, to spend more time up here.”

— Rory Bremner

“I used to do my Nelson Mandela voice to blag restaurant tables in Cape Town. It rarely worked. Now what a great city that is.”

— Rory Bremner

I'm much more used to the TV shows, which are demanding to write and perform but very fulfilling.

— Rory Bremner

“It's no wonder the Tory Party opposed identity cards, since so many of them struggle to find an identity at all.”

— Rory Bremner

“My first public impression was my French teacher, Derek Swift.”

— Rory Bremner

“When I first met Tony Blair in 1996, he was open and idealistic, keen to bring a breath of fresh air to government. But something happened - was it just the arrogance of power? - that narrowed Labour's vision from purposeful reform and investment, to peevish and petulant pragmatism.”

— Rory Bremner

Genealogy is among the fastest-growing leisure pursuits in the U.K. Indeed, the urge to uncover the truth about our ancestors has proved so compelling that, when the 1901 census first went online, the website crashed after a million people logged on within hours of its launch.

— Rory Bremner

“I am proud of Edinburgh's status as a financial centre, but where is it on the index of global financial centres? Sixty-fourth. Below Hamilton, Casablanca and Mauritius. London, by contrast, is second only to New York. That's a link worth keeping.”

— Rory Bremner

“I have late onset ADHD. I take on too much and end up spinning plates, but it's entertaining, and it helps you make quick connections if you're a comedian, if you have a brain that can dance around too much.”

— Rory Bremner

“So to recap: we may or may not be going to war with Iraq because Saddam may or may not have weapons of mass destruction, which he may or may not use, or pass to other terrorists groups with whom he may or may not have links.”

— Rory Bremner

“When I think back to my childhood, it's with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment. I was always forgetting things. My mum called me scatty because I could never sit still. But there was no sense I was suffering from a medical condition as such.”

— Rory Bremner

“I don't have olive skin. Nobody could tell from my skin that I'm Mediterranean. I'm quite fair, and I do burn easily.”

— Rory Bremner

“I can't look at John Prescott without thinking of Les Dawson, and Robin Cook is a caricature of himself.”

— Rory Bremner

“I have never been good at doing impressions of women. Which is understandable. There's a gender issue.”

— Rory Bremner

“In a more intellectually rigorous age, I wouldn't be talked about as a satirist at all. I would just be a topical comedian.”

— Rory Bremner

“People may say that what I do is very clever, but it's not really at all. It's not Swift.”

— Rory Bremner

“Politics now is rather like going into Starbucks for a coffee.”

— Rory Bremner

“When I did 'Bremner, Bird and Fortune' I think it was accepted that comedians can contest the arguments just as well as journalists.”

— Rory Bremner

“A lot of what I do - I have to try and make sense of things before I can make nonsense of them.”

— Rory Bremner

“Being a great believer in Scottish tradition, I followed the example of my fellow countrymen and moved to England.”

— Rory Bremner

I love anywhere new and different. That's the fun of travel. I've always loved driving through Spain, France and Italy - sometimes in an Alfa Spider.

— Rory Bremner

“I think I probably tend to make life hard for myself by taking on too many things. I call it plate spinning.”

— Rory Bremner

I think if there is a God, it's very important that he has a sense of humour - otherwise, you are in for a very miserable afterlife.

— Rory Bremner

“I wish my father had lived longer. He died when I was 18.”

— Rory Bremner

“I've no idea what they make of me. People usually don't recognise themselves in an impression.”

— Rory Bremner

“In truth, I barely knew my father at all. He was 53 when I was born, and when I was ten he contracted cancer. Eight years later, in 1979, he died.”

— Rory Bremner

“It frustrates me when my mind wanders and when I end up reading the same words again and again.”

— Rory Bremner

Like millions of Scots, I've agonised over whether to go for independence or remain with the Union.

— Rory Bremner

“Now I'm instantly nervous about the demands of doing a weekly column.”

— Rory Bremner

Scotland needs comedy more than ever. With the independence debate, finally after 300 years, reaching room temperature.

— Rory Bremner

“For some time, Scotland's greatest exports to England have included whisky and Scottish MPs. Or, in the case of Charles Kennedy, both. All these links, politically, economically, culturally, are part of my Union. Would Glasgow's brilliant Commonwealth Games or the Edinburgh Festival be any better for our being independent? I doubt it.”

— Rory Bremner

“When you consider what Tony Blair was saying about liberty, human rights and that sort of thing, it would be terribly revolutionary to sell the speeches he and Jack Straw made in 1994.”

— Rory Bremner

“For such a small country, Britain packs in an amazing diversity of landscapes: coastline, lakes, mountains, rolling countryside, villages and great cities.”

— Rory Bremner

“I remember when Tony Blair came into office, and there was a sense I was thinking, 'Well, what on Earth am I going to do now?' until I realized that's exactly what he was thinking.”

— Rory Bremner

“I'm supposed to be the director of a television company, but I've only ever seen that company as a vehicle for making the kind of programmes we wanted to make, getting our ideas on the screen.”

— Rory Bremner

I've never felt entirely comfortable in high society. I'm more comfortable talking to the bar staff than the super-rich. I don't really get what makes them tick.

— Rory Bremner

“It is a weird thing, because most people tend to get more conservative as they get older, but I find myself going the opposite way. I am sure that by the end I will be selling Marxist pamphlets on the Holloway Road.”

— Rory Bremner

“What's fascinating about doing comedy about the referendum is, because it is the first time, it is the most extraordinary atmosphere. You find that if you are making jokes about politicians, it becomes intensely political.”

— Rory Bremner

When I was growing up, there were just the three channels, so as a nation we all sat down to the same meal at the end of the day. Now there's been this explosion.

— Rory Bremner

“Tony Blair has always said he will be judged by history. Now Alastair Campbell is history we await his judgment.”

— Rory Bremner

“When George Bush finally leaves the White House, the satire industry will briefly join the rest of the economy in recession. It will certainly be the end of an era.”

— Rory Bremner

It is almost impossible to say the name of Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawat without adding 'give a dog a bone'

— Rory Bremner

“William Hague, the world's favourite hairline.”

— Rory Bremner