I have a stepladder. It's a very nice stepladder but it's sad that I never knew my real ladder.

I have a stepladder. It's a very nice stepladder but it's sad that I never knew my real ladder.

It's evolve or die, really, you have to evolve, you have to move on otherwise it just becomes stagnant.

It's not supposed to be easy, if it's easy, it's no good, that's the way I look at it.

British fans are exceptional, but the American fans are something else. Some of them fly 500 miles to stand in line for three hours, just to meet me, then when they do they collapse.

Coming from having absolutely nothing to having a few grand in the bank, it was a big culture leap. I think that's why I went off the rails a bit really, 'cause there was no training for it. They didn't do fame in schools.

Critics called me 'egregious' - I had to look that one up - and 'creepy', but now I don't read them, I weigh them.

For me, everything has always been an accident.

I'm busy and that's the way I like it - when I have too much downtime I get into trouble.

I've been very lucky, this is my 30th year on TV.

I've got wealth and fame but I haven't changed my roots.

My life has been, I suppose, the most incredible series of highs and lows.

Once journalists have been rifling through your dustbins, you do try and keep them at arms' length.

Prison widens your circle of friends. In my stand-up, I can now talk about things that no one else has the right to touch.

The inventory process and stepping back in your life can sometimes be a very dark process. But it also can be extremely funny and surprising.

There was never any career plan. When 'Red Dwarf' started I thought we were doing a curious little sitcom on BBC2, I didn't think I was becoming an actor. I didn't see that 21 years later I'd still be talking about it, let alone filming a new one. For me everything's always been an accident.

We were the only black family in an estate with 1,000 white families. Liverpool being quite racist in the Sixties, it was a bit grim growing up.

What's amazing is that I'm recognized all over the world through 'Red Dwarf.' British fans are exceptional, but the American fans are something else. Some of them fly 500 miles to stand in line for three hours, just to meet me, then when they do they collapse. It makes you feel like a rock star!

You've got to take the positives.

I am one of the affluent rich living the good life. But I like to think that I am doing my bit to resolve the problems of Africa and am certainly committed to Africa in the long run.

Laughter is not only contagious, but is experienced in a deeper way when it is shared.

I work toward the liberation of women, but I'm not feminist. I'm just a woman.

Every role is a potential lover. I ask: Are they someone I want to wake up to in the morning and go to bed with at night? Do they question my assumptions about life? Consume me to distraction? Make my cry, then clown to make me laugh again? If I say yes, then it's all I need.

Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.

I love performing in front of an audience and seeing smiles on the kids' faces.

But no, I've just been very lucky. But I've worked hard, and the harder you work, the luckier you seem to get.

Who owns your body? You or the state?

An economically peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka is the dream of youth of the nation. My message for the youth is to collectively work for an inclusively developed Sri Lanka.

I want people to say, 'She is really sweet and kind.' Anyone can work hard enough and be 'pretty.' Not many people are nice nowadays.

This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.

A basic rule of life for reporters is that you should spend your time talking with and learning about people who are not sending you press releases, rather than those who are.

We had our first meeting yesterday, and we just laughed all the way through, so if we can bottle that, then I'll be happy. We just get on, and that's half the battle.

There was a time when all that mattered was that you were in a good movie.

When a high-profile personality lives like I do, everybody thinks that person is fated to die young.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

To cover politics in Washington allows you to live in the very, very wide gap between what the actual truth is, and how people are trying to manipulate the truth. They speak in the language of spin, obsequiousness, obfuscation. The meta of politics is just this endless source of material that can shed light on the psychology of the process.

If we cannot by reason, by influence, by example, by strenuous effort, and by personal sacrifice, mend the bad places of civilization, we certainly cannot do it by force.

There is no way in which we can retrospectively erase the Treaty of Vienna or the Great Irish Famine. It is a peculiar feature of human actions that, once performed, they can never be recuperated. What is true of the past will always be true of it.

I love America.

Let me start by saying that I do not enjoy nor relish the partisan role of attack dog. I never found any fun in that. I don't think it's constructive. I don't intend to become that here in the Senate.

These are the stories the Dogs tell, when the fires burn high and the wind is from the north.

I want to be a Kid Reporter because I would like to meet interesting people, and I also love being in front of the camera! As a Kid Reporter, I would love to learn how to be a better writer and interview people.

Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes one fails.