Quotes by Christopher Guest

In 'Waiting for Guffman,' the character I played, the Corky character, he's very serious about what he does, and it's not meant to be mean that this is a small town and these people aren't the most talented people. They're trying the best they can. So to be mean, that would be kind of horrifying in its superficiality.

With a documentary, you can cut away, you can do jump cuts, cut to a photograph at any point to bridge two scenes.

I was never in an improv group. But when I went to school, we would do it all day long with friends, not knowing what it was called.

It's difficult to articulate how I know it's the right actor, but I do. It's instinct. Intuition.

Some instinct has told me I need to live in a world that isn't consumed with reading about myself or anyone else or someone's opinion about something. I need to be clear of that. It's just healthier for me. I feel happier.

I haven't had to do anything outside of show business my whole life. I've never been a waiter. I've only worked and gotten paid. It hasn't been a classic example of someone slogging through the business.

I guess there's something that's appealing to me about people that are aspirational-slash-deluded.

If you're showing people where it's smooth sailing, where is the joke? If you go back to any movie, even a conventional movie, with any comedians, they're either not terribly intelligent or they're not doing something well.

Nothing is cut while I'm shooting. I edit between nine months and a year, and usually have around 80 hours of footage I have to get down to an 82-minute movie.

I would make a huge distinction between theater improvisation and film improvisation.