When presented with an audience or a camera, usually [my stammer] disappeared, but by no means all the time. I can show you some outtakes of Blackadd… - Rowan Atkinson

[The French] are so uncompromising in their view of the world, which is why they are such a fantastically rich source of comedy. They are so relentless and so clear in their view of things, and they won't be shoved off that position by anything. What's also good is that, generally speaking, making jokes about the French appears to be something that nobody really minds. The French don't even care, they just go about their lives regardless.

When I was doing Bean more than I've done him in the last few years, I did strange things; like appearing on chat shows in character as Mr. Bean. I remember going to a book signing as Mr. Bean; it was a Mr. Bean book; and I signed it as Mr. Bean. I just wrote "Mr. Bean" in the book rather than Rowan Atkinson. I was there in costume and in character for the entire time; from arriving in the store till leaving it at the end of the book signing; and it was a fantastically kind of freeing experience, because I could just submerge myself in this character and just behave however I liked. And I didn't care what I did or what I said to anyone; I just became this other person, and it was a wonderful sort of freedom. A wonderful kind of fantasy, where you could just be this thoroughly rather unpleasant, selfish man for an hour; in a totally real context rather than in a fictional context. It was rather extraordinary, actually, and something that I found rather pleasing and rather relaxing.

It does seem to me that the job of comedy is to offend, or have the potential to offend, and it cannot be drained of that potential. Every joke has a victim. That’s the definition of a joke. Someone or something or an idea is made to look ridiculous....In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.