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" I think what I do is borderline art. Most people who do borderline art have to have other jobs, so I'm very grateful. "
Stewart Lee
Most
People
Think
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" Nothing is too controversial, but you have to think about how to do it with sensitivity. I don't try to be insensitive. I think really, really carefully about exactly what things mean and how they will affect people. "
Stewart Lee
People
Mean
Think
" I'm forever reading on the Internet that I apparently cultivate this audience and never go badly. "
Stewart Lee
Never
Reading
Audience
" There's an assumption that my audience is all these bearded twats from Dalston. But actually, quite a lot of older people go. For them, it's like pre-alternative comedy, when there was Dave Allen or Jackie Mason or someone. Also, weirdly, because I don't really swear, they're not scared off. "
Stewart Lee
Someone
Audience
Comedy
" I'm very grateful to my adoptive family. My mother sorted my life out. "
Stewart Lee
Grateful
Mother
Life
" I don't mind causing offence when I intend to, but I don't like causing it accidentally. "
Stewart Lee
Offence
Like
Intend
" I grew up in Solihull, on the edge of what was then the Birmingham conurbation. It was a good place to write comedy from. I didn't feel allegiance to anything. I didn't have working-class pride or upper-class superiority. "
Stewart Lee
Comedy
Edge
Feel
" I went to a hypnotist to learn how not to use drinking a pint before you go on as a way of giving you the confidence to just fly at it, irrespective of the fear. That's not a long-term strategy, when you do as many gigs as I do. "
Stewart Lee
Fear
Confidence
Strategy
" I thought it would be a funny concept to publish a book about stand-up comedy with Faber, the poetry publisher, and to apply to stand-up the same sort of weight of annotation that you would to a classic work of literature, an epic poem. I thought that would be funny. "
Stewart Lee
Poetry
You
Work
" Now I've got kids, you wouldn't want them to suffer because of a perception of you. I try to be very careful where I do things and make sure I know why I've done them. I wouldn't want them to be stigmatized. "
Stewart Lee
Want
You
Try
" The idea of what's acceptable and what's shocking, that's where I investigate. I mean, you can't be on 'Top Gear,' where your only argument is that it's all just a joke and anyone who takes offence is an example of political correctness gone mad, and then not accept the counterbalance to that. "
Stewart Lee
Argument
Accept
You
" Normally, when I write a tour show, it's got a title that means something - a beginning, a middle and an end - and some kind of storyline and ideas going through it over two hours. "
Stewart Lee
Two
Over
Beginning
" Sometimes, I read that I'm this leftwing comic who just goes on about politics the whole time. Other times, I read that it's just surreal nonsense about crisps. It's both of those. "
Stewart Lee
Time
Politics
Nonsense
" If a gig goes badly, my main worry is, 'Will these people come back?' Because that will affect my ability to pay the mortgage - but nowadays, I don't really mind what happens, as I think if it all goes wrong for real, you still have to go with it. "
Stewart Lee
People
Worry
You
" I'd quite like to write a book about comics, actually. But trying to write about comics as literature, which I don't think anyone's really done before. Sometimes they're more like fan books, and I'd quite like to write one about the Marvel universe over the last 50 years. It's an unprecedented achievement to create that length of continuity. "
Stewart Lee
Book
Universe
Achievement
" I don't think I'd want to be a comedian today if I saw it on the telly. I wouldn't think it was a thing for weirdoes and drop-outs; I'd think it was a thing for squares who wanted to be famous. "
Stewart Lee
Famous
Who
Think
" Personally, I don't have a Twitter account. I like to be in control of the way the stand up of Stewart Lee is perceived, I don't want to have to engage with individual people. Also, when I do look at it, loads of factually inaccurate things about me are written. "
Stewart Lee
Me
People
Stand
" I think a comedian has to be low status on some level; that gives you the right to do all sorts of jokes about all sorts of different kinds of people. "
Stewart Lee
Jokes
Right
Think
" I suppose we are what we are, and we use the evidence to confirm what we believe. "
Stewart Lee
Suppose
Use
Believe
" You get annoyed about things in real life, and then the tragic thing is that while you are moaning on the awful injustice and suffering of something, something grimly comic will then strike you about it, like a parasite feeding off the misery of the world. "
Stewart Lee
Suffering
World
Life
" If I had grown up in London, I wouldn't have been as keen to become a comedian or a writer. I'd have been able to see a lot of good films and music and comedy. I'd have been distracted. As it was, I had to make it. "
Stewart Lee
Comedy
Become
Good
" I work a lot of things out on stage nowadays rather than writing them in big blocks. "
Stewart Lee
Out
Stage
Writing
" I'm in this for the long haul, I want to be doing this until I die. I am a standup comedian. I know a lot of people say I'm not, but I am. "
Stewart Lee
I Am
People
Long
" The only reason I look back is to check if I've been doing something wrong. I look at things from even three years ago and think, 'I wouldn't do that now.' Your life changes. "
Stewart Lee
Changes
Think
Look
" I think Russell Brand's books should be criticised for being rubbish - but it is true that there's a professional class of opinion-former who has a financial interest in their job not being taken away. "
Stewart Lee
Professional
Job
Financial
" If I could travel through time, I wouldn't go back and change anything in my life, because I'm delighted with the way it's turned out. "
Stewart Lee
Way
My Life
Change
" I read in the 'Daily Mail' that I'm one of these 'foul-mouthed comedians.' But I'm much cleaner than the people they like. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to think that a 70-year-old - particularly someone like Alan Bennett - would like it, because they've seen a lot of stuff. "
Stewart Lee
Me
Daily
Nothing
" Lots of stand-up showcases on TV are made by production companies that also represent acts as clients, so there tends to be a demonstrable bias towards a certain group of people. "
Stewart Lee
Production
Bias
Clients
" Controversy seems to be a by-product of what I do, rather like offence is the by-product of a dog urinating on the pavement. It just happens. "
Stewart Lee
Dog
Just
Like
" I've now got a 35,000-word document of quotes from people who hate me, a lot from the 'Guardian' comment threads. Mostly, I've managed to get myself into the mindset where the criticism is quite affirming. "
Stewart Lee
Mindset
Me
Now
" Stand-up is more of an organic process. An imagined dialogue with the audience. "
Stewart Lee
More
Dialogue
Process