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" 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
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" I suppose we are what we are, and we use the evidence to confirm what we believe. "
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Use
Believe
" 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
" For other comics, it's about full-spectrum dominance, being on panel shows and having one-liners and being a good chat show guest and having a good seven minutes you can do on 'Live At The Apollo.' But I really think about these subsequent finished pieces, you know? And they don't always chop up well into one-liners and routines. "
Stewart Lee
You
Always
Good
" When I did 'Jerry Springer: The Opera,' there was a big fuss, largely centered around the misrepresentation of its content. Had Twitter existed then, that would have been over in a week because people who had actually seen it would have been able to get control of the story through social media. "
Stewart Lee
People
Media
Control
" 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
" 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 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 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
" I don't know where the ideas come from, and it's terrifying. They seem to be absolute flukes. When I was in my 20s, I'd walk around with a notebook all the time and make sure I wrote down anything that occurred to me. Now I'm just hoping that some sort of event will descend on me. "
Stewart Lee
Me
Walk
Time
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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'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
" Stand-up is more of an organic process. An imagined dialogue with the audience. "
Stewart Lee
More
Dialogue
Process
" 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
" I wasn't the classic comedy type; I wasn't bullied or extrovert. I was more the ambitious literary one who wanted to write clever little plays. "
Stewart Lee
Classic
Clever
Comedy
" 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
" The me you see on stage is largely a construct, based on me at my worst, my most annoying, my most petty, and my most patronizing. "
Stewart Lee
See
Stage
Worst
" I really, really love being on stage now. "
Stewart Lee
Being
Love
Now
" I work a lot of things out on stage nowadays rather than writing them in big blocks. "
Stewart Lee
Out
Stage
Writing
" 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'm forever reading on the Internet that I apparently cultivate this audience and never go badly. "
Stewart Lee
Never
Reading
Audience
" 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
" 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
" In places like Glasgow and Newcastle, audiences have a tradition of being amusingly combative. But they're not trying to ruin the act, they're trying to give you a challenge. It's like a cat playing with a mouse - the cat doesn't want the mouse to die, it wants to keep it alive for its own amusement and to be entertained by its struggle. "
Stewart Lee
Challenge
Die
Struggle
" 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
" 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