Nina Conti Quotes

I could never be on stage on my own. But puppets can say things that humans can't say.

With acting, I always felt like I didn't have control of it. It was all about other people giving me a job.

My dad is a much more flamboyant character than I am. I think that's why I couldn't see myself going into straight acting. I always just felt daft.

I feel Scottish when with English people, and when I'm with Scottish people, I realise I'm English.

I had a terrible dream when I was pregnant; I dreamt the baby had a ventriloquial mouth, but there was no hand hole; I had to flick the mouth down to get words out.

If I have a gig in the evening, I get 'the doom' at about 5 P.M., when I think I'm getting flu.

I've started running three or four times a week, which prompts millions of sketch ideas.

I like my squishy, red, high-heeled Vivienne Westwood jelly shoes. They make you seem like you're much more of a go-er.

The way I talk to the puppets is real, and it's in the moment, and it's seeing what will happen. It's not something that is scripted.

Having a puppet is a way of having opposing opinions - I say a thing; he says the other.

I make napkins talk in restaurants, socks talk on car journeys. There is an awful lot of puppetry going on in the house.

I thought people would think I only wanted to be an actor because my dad was, rather than because I had an innate calling.

I was really awful at auditions. There's something about sitting down and saying into the camera: "I'm Nina and this is the name of my agent." That makes me just die inside.

It's sad, the lottery. Good projects get funded by it, but there's an air of desperation about it.