As Soon As I See Period Costume,

I've Always Been Drawn To Discomfort And That Limbo Of Unease You Get Between Comedy And Tragedy.

I Am Not A Politician Going Around Bragging About Family Values Or Putting Myself On Some Ridiculous Virtuous Pedestal. I Write Comedy. And I Am An Actor. I Am Not Going To Solve The Nation's Problems. I Don't Actually Spend My Life In The Way The Tabloids Like To Think I Do. I Actually Spend 95 Percent Of It Writing Comedy. Sober. Well, Nearly Sober Anyway.

What Terrifies Me Is That I Might Somehow Endorse That View So People Think They Don't Have To Read Books Anymore.

The Fundamentalists Are Insistent That They Know Best. It's A Dictatorial Attitude Towards Personal Morality, Which Is A Modern Creation That Came About In The 19th Century.

I Never Had Any Desire To Be Famous. I Find People Who Do Really Sad. I Genuinely Feel Sorry For Them Because There Is Nothing Of Substancein Their Lives. I Am Happy When I Am Writing Or Performing. Not When I Sit There Being "famous". I Like Recognition For My Work, But Not Recognition For Being "that Bloke Off The Telly". It Is Genuinely Humbling When A Woman Comes Up To Me, As Someone Did Recently, To Say She Wanted To Commit Suicide After Her Husband Died, And My Show Cheered Her Up And Made Her Feel Better. That's Great.