I didnt know any actors growing up. My dad was a builder, and we didnt know any arty types.

My childhood was very gregarious, and I was usually surrounded by close family.

I dont like to watch myself on screen because in my mind there is a touch of George Clooney about me, but when I see it, there is more than a little Donkey from Shrek about me.

I had an inspirational teacher at my junior school: Peter Nixon. He was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and slightly scary - a good combination for a teacher.

Theres always an anxiety about playing literary characters because one of the great joys of reading books is that you can create your own vision of things.

I enter myself in races. I did a triathlon, and I have done a marathon a couple of times.

I watch films. I play the guitar: me and some mates - I wouldnt dignify it with the term band - get together and play.

I'm a massive sucker for music documentaries.

Comedy is a very personal thing, and some people will find it funny, some people wont.

I am a passionate believer that comedy is a way of tackling some of the most dark and difficult aspects of being a human being.

Dad was a strict disciplinarian and would give us a wallop with a wooden spoon if we were out of order. But we really respected him - he didn't try to be our best friend.

Little deer, I've stuffed all the world's diseases inside you. / Your veins are thorns // and the good cells are lost in the deep dark woods / of your organs.

Not much in the world ends up being the same as it started out, unless of course it had a very short life cycle.

But I didn't mind. I loved that everything was cataloged and ready to go and that I was technically now living and sleeping in a library.

We're all real people with moments of intense honesty and pathos and humanity. We all experience that, whether you're comedic or not.

At this time is freedom anything but the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

Eliminate the superfluous.

Whether it's corporate investigations or comedy, there are certain inherent truths to trying to get what you want while trying to be a decent person doing it.

Of course, I'm no dummy.

And George Brett. I think most people know that George and I have become pretty good friends over the years.

Matter is merely mind deadened by the development of habit to the point where the breaking up of these habits is very difficult.