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 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.

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.

Literature itself is a species of code. You line up symbols and create a simulacrum of life.

The farther you go, however, the harder it is to return. The world has many edges, and it's easy to fall off.

Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.

The presidency is more than a popularity contest.

I've never had a stylist, and I've always chosen my own clothes.

He writes so well he makes me feel like putting my quill back in my goose.

I can never do better than 'Fawlty Towers,' whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.

Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.

Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve the silence?

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