Quote #50

He got used early to the adulation of a wide public and eventually decided that he could do without it; long before the end, fame had to chase him far harder than he chased it. But among his fellow practitioners his lustre was undimmed, unequalled. and unchallenged... Just as the astronauts riding up on their rockets all worshipped Chuck Yeager, the jet pilot who never joined them in space because he flew too well with wings, so the media millionaires all knew that Cook was the unsurpassable precursor who had done it all before they did, and done it better. ~ Clive James, in an online tribute.

More from Peter Cook

  1. It is a sad fact that when people are really enjoying themselves and laughing immoderately, they can afterwards remember very little of the…
  2. He wasn't just a genius, he had the genius's impatience with the whole idea of doing something again. He reinvented an art form, exhausted …
  3. I'll leave with a story whose victim, Sir David Frost, won't mind it being told, because he tells it himself. David Frost rang Peter Cook u…
  4. The first time I saw Peter what made the impression was the visual content of what he and Dudley Moore were doing. It was Not Only, But Als…
  5. Being British in this part of the century meant living in the country that had Peter Cook in it. There are wits and there are clowns in com…
  6. I realised what everyone else had been talking about: the brilliance of Peter's humour. It was brilliant and it was luminous. And it was...…
  7. The funniest man who ever drew breath. ~ Stephen Fry
  8. I remember being moved to tears when Peter said: 'I know I was funny but I know I won't improve, I won't get any better'. I was lucky to be…

All Peter Cook quotes