The one thing I remember about Christmas was that my father used to take me out in a boat about ten miles offshore on Christmas Day, and I used to have to swim back. Extraordinary. It was a ritual. Mind you, that wasn't the hard part. The difficult bit was getting out of the sack.

I'm very odd 'cause I think there's more than just a materialist planet, a materialist, reductionist planet.

Why write about the past? Well, there's more of it.

For those wondering how to deal with anxiety and depression, the first thing to consider is what you're putting into your mouth.

It seems astounding to me now that the video games are perhaps as important as the movie themselves. And people will spend 2 or 3 years obsessing about the video game in exactly the same way that they'd be obsessing about the movie if they were working on that.

You go in and meet the head of BBC One and get an assurance about not dumbing down. And then, of course a few months later, he's been replaced by someone you haven't met.

Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.