I think the special thing about Python is that it's a writers' commune. The writers are in charge. The writers decide what the material is.

The next step will be for the colonists on Mars to throw off the hand of the United States. There will be this wonderful historical irony. When the people on Mars write a declaration of independence saying, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident...', the US will be rather pissed off.

I used to have a house in London, but couldn't face 20 more years of St John's Wood in the rain.

Pattycake, pattycake, baker's man; good morning, madam, I'm a psychiatrist

John Cleese once told me he'd do anything for money. So I offered him a pound to shut up, and he took it.

We destroy icons - that's what we do.

My first professional job was appearing in a disastrous theatre production of Oh, What a Lovely War in Leicester Rep, shortly after leaving Cambridge.