The hardest part of being creative: How do we learn to play like a child? It must have been something like a fantasy, not only for those initiated into the art of comedy but for all kinds of "backward" minds: to write a book about creativity and its origins – if they exist – the legendary Monty Python’s John Cleese, responsible for some of the funniest and most subversive scenes ever played on screen.

To start with, of course, it makes little sense to write – or even to read – six hundred pages on the matter: "Too many words are poverty. And they also make others bored." Or in other words: "Sorry this letter is so long, but I didn’t have time to write a shorter one."

Co-founder of the creative collective Monty Python in the late '60s, John Cleese (1939-) excelled in British comedy with Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC, 1969-1974) and the landmark anarchic humor films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life. His screenplay for the film A Fish Called Wanda was nominated for an Oscar in 1989.

In 2000, the '70s series Fawlty Towers (with just two seasons of six episodes and Cleese as writer and lead actor) was declared by the British Film Institute as the greatest television program of all time in Britain. His public – and still hilarious – discourse continues to challenge every form of political correctness to this day.