“I’m not a great shopper but I do buy a lot of books. I’m the publishers’ friend – I buy a hundred books a year and read four.”

I see myself as a comic but the acting helps sell tickets for gigs.

I’m more inclined to linger in the science pages of ‘The Week’ magazine.

The thing I’d really like to see is the old London Bridge, with all the old buildings around it like Shakespeare’s Globe.

The principle that light can be in two places at the same time is absolutely extraordinary.

A foolproof plan for not getting a job.

Any journey around Islington involves hundreds of speed bumps that seem to tear the bottom of your car off.

Show up for your interview wearing flip flops.

I don’t want to moan about being recognised but I do get a bit of grief sometimes.

There’s a lot to do when you’re a kid – spiders to catch, girls to poke in the eye – stuff to be getting on with.

I like pubs too, but it’s hard for me to go and get proper bladdered in the way I used to.

I’m quite a curious person. I don’t mind being the one who doesn’t know things, a role I often play in QI.

I’d like to walk along that. Don’t worry, I won’t get drunk and fall in.

I dont drive around London much.

But my principle obsessions are still watching sitcoms and football.

A bambiraptor is a savage baby dear.

I liked the idea of all of humanity fitting inside a sugar cube because more than 99.9% of matter is space.

I spent 24 and a half years in prison

I think it was four years ago when my feelings were changing towards the industry.

There were fifty-four women and forty little boys with the Red Army prisoners, and I went daily to take care of them also.

You know, an hour and fifty-four minutes is too much for audiences. They get nervous.

I want to win four or five championship rings. That’s how I dream. I dream big.

Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

I am sure in some years from now you will see new posters with just white space and four lines in Garamond.

Since the age of four, I’ve been exploring what I can do with the written word.