After 30 years of television, I want to play more than I used to.

The photoshoot glitz and TV studio make-up isn't the real me. I spend most days at home in Bristol in jeans and a T-shirt running around after the kids or shopping in the Co-op.

I cannot do the piece-of-talking-meat thing, the 'Here's your money, wear a pretty dress and take the cheque.' I'm not made that way. I have to be as good as I can be at whatever I do.

I would put belly laughing at the top of my highlights list. They always say that laughter is the best medicine.

I loved doing 'Countdown.' I now consider that I was very, very lucky - not just because it was such a wonderful show to do, but because it lasted for so long.

I was away a lot on 'Countdown' when the children were young and I couldn't have done it without Mum's help. Because she was at home running all of that, I never had to worry about them.

My bottom is so big it's got its own gravitational field.

My first marriage was totally unsuitable and shouldn't have happened. It was a whirlwind, rebound thing. I was 23 or 24 - a baby.

The first couple of days on the detox diet aren't pleasant.

I would never say never to marrying again but for the time being I'm having a great time.

I'd be happy to stay single now because I've always been in relationships. For the first time ever I can do what I want, when I want, with who I want, without answering to anyone.

Every piece of art is a mirror and serves the function of reflectivity to expose to you and reveal to you more of who you are.

The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.

Until you can intelligently articulate the other side's position, you are not an adult. You are a liberal.

Set your goals, follow your dreams, listen to your heart and don't let anything stand in your way.

Everyone went crazy over Wayne Rooney, but I get more excited by Cristiano Ronaldo.

It's a tough thing, to know what to do about a war that deep in your gut you feel is wrong and yet watch your peers going off to fight in that war.

People love to get scared. People want to see the worst thing that can happen.

None of my English teachers in college were praising me or telling me I was anything special. But then in creative writing classes they were. And I enjoyed those more anyway.

You can have diabetes and have a piece of cake. You cannot have diabetes and eat a whole cake.

Fifteen years ago, if you said business will help save the environment people would have laughed at you. Today, I believe that is a serious proposition.