There are no real guidelines or maps in Australia as to how to write a show, whereas in Hollywood it's where the TV industry is created and there's a lot of work that goes into development.

Dogs are more of a responsibility than kids - you can send a kid off to their grandparents or a nanny, but with a dog you can't do that.

You can maybe be artistic and really original and creative, but as long as it's got that funniness at the root of it, then certain people are going to love it just because they need a laugh.

My dad was in the army so we moved around a lot and I changed schools every year and had to make new friends, and I found that if I was the funny guy I could do that easier.

To open the majority of peoples' minds to something new is difficult. I always think that, as long as it's funny underneath, then you can argue that a teaspoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

I often don't like seeing how different things are made. I'm not a big fan of behind the scenes stuff.

I'm sort lucky in that for me, I'm a writer now. I started as an actor but I'm a writer and so things like 'Wilfred' and shows like that are where I escape to.

It's great to write for actors when you know who they are. I think I prefer it.

British comedy - which has been a big inspiration to me for many years - is very different to Australian comedy and different again to American comedy.

Back in Australia, I did foster care for sick cats for years, and I was always most successful with the animals when I was given two - a brother and sister.

I like drama as well. When I played Hamlet, I got one review that said, "This must surely be the funniest Hamlet in history," but schoolgirls would still cry when he died.

Keats was getting a reputation just when he was too ill to appreciate it or build on it: his country was taking notice of him just when he would have to leave it.

... But then again, a person could turn ugly. Their actual look could change when their actions were repulsive.

I did not sleep. I never do when I am over-happy, over-unhappy, or in bed with a strange man.

Half the spiritual difficulties that men and women suffer arise from a morbid state of health.

It is often said that our modern world is incapable of self-government.

You have to be very careful about what you say. More importantly, you have to be very careful about what you do. You never know how or when you influence people – especially children.

Faith is only as valid as its object. You could have tremendous faith in very thin ice and drown. . . . You could have very little faith in very thick ice and be perfectly secure.

What happened in the United States election is not a matter for the United Kingdom, it is a matter for the United States and the United States authorities.

Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.

Sometimes I think women are lucky because they can develop in ways men can't. The old-boy network may be oppressive to women, but it actually stunts men in terms of personal growth.