No one got anywhere by being too scared to open their mouth in case nobody laughed.
Don't take criticism personally; take from it what's useful. Apply it and move on to something better.
'Writing' always means 'not writing' to me because I will do anything to put it off. I think this is mainly because writing anything down and then handing it over to a third party - especially in comedy - is such an exposing act that you naturally want to delay the process.
Any degree of success or achievement for me is only ever a relief. My version of getting carried away is: 'Mmm, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.'
Writing comedy is an exposing thing because you're putting yourself on the line with every joke you write, and although you can't second-guess an audience, if you want to be successful, you have to write stuff people like.
I've never really thought I'd get married. It's not that I'm suspicious of it or anything like that, it's just that I don't have a reference for it because my mum wasn't.
If I hadn't had a baby, a part of me thinks I might have turned up on the red carpets all the time and gone, 'Hi, it's me!' Maybe other people do it because they haven't got kids and they've nowhere else to be. But because I have, I don't feel like that.
Nothing is ever going to be as important or as exciting as a baby. Everyone has their highs and lows, but if you've got that one constant in your life - in my case, a baby - the highs are never going to be as big, and the lows are never going to be as bad.
I like doing both TV and live stuff, though it's nice to mix it up.
There's no game plan when it comes to thinking up new characters; inspiration can come from anything - from a wig I've seen to an expression I've heard someone use.
I don't know why, but people tend to look at stand-ups and think they can act, which actually isn't the case. But never mind. I thought: if that's the area where they're looking, then that's the area where I'll put myself - even as a means to an end. And it was.
I was not a 'Doctor Who' fan. As a kid, I thought it was scary and for boys.
That's the poisoned chalice: when you're shy, people assume you're arrogant.
I tried four times to get into the Central School of Speech and Drama before I got accepted. I started when I was 17, which was too young, in retrospect, and finally went when I was 21. I just kept plugging away. Determined? Yeah, I think I was.
It's never been a point of reference to look to a man. It's not always a good thing, I suppose, but I think independence is always preferable to dependence.
I went from an unemployed actor's life to doing stand-up comedy, and that was fortuitous. It's not the usual way the crow flies, going from being in a TV sketch show to playing one of Shakespeare's finest characters, but, hey, that's the way it has happened.
I'm an incredibly negative person, so any form of success is only ever going to be a relief to me and set my default position back to neutral.
I'm naturally quite lazy, and I actually think I'm lax about my career. None of my work defines who I am.
I realised that if you get yourself labeled as the funny one, people don't look any further. I've used that as I've got older. It's controlling: I decide what part of my personality you're seeing. I don't want you to look at me, I really don't. I don't want you to comment on my clothes, my hair or the way I look.
Although I was a shy child, I was also a bit flamboyant.
