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I Had Always Fancied A Go At The Comedy And When It Started To Go Reasonably Well And The Opportunity Arose For Me To Move Into It Full Time, I Just Couldn't Turn It Down. I Just Took The Risk, And I Just Wanted To See If It Would Work And Thankfully It Did.

-Jo Brand

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I Had Always Fancied

Jo Brand

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I Had Always Fancied A Go At The Comedy And When It Started To Go Reasonably Well And The Opportunity Arose For Me To Move Into It Full Time, I Just Couldn't Turn It Down. I Just Took The Risk, And I Just Wanted To See If It Would Work And Thankfully It Did.

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With Two Small Children, I Haven't Had A Wash Since 2001 So The Chance To Go Shopping Is Way Down The List. It Is Something I Do Intend To Get.

I Pay A Bit More Than Lip-service To Health: I Don't Eat Chips Or Pre-prepared Food, And It Might Be A Comedy Sacrilege To Admit I Do Like Vegetables, Fruit And Salad And Stuff.

I Buy Smoked Mackerel In A Vain Attempt At Being Healthy. I Do Actually Really Like It, And You Don't Have To Cook It, Which Is Handy.

Not Many Women Will Go Out On A Limb To Make Themselves Really Unattractive And Unfeminine So You Can Get The Laughs, But It's A Great Thing To Do In My Book.

I'm Too Nervous To Eat Before I Go Onstage, And I'll Usually Eat Out After The Performance Or When I Get Home At Midnight.

I Had Always Fancied A Go At The Comedy And When It Started To Go Reasonably Well And The Opportunity Arose For Me To Move Into It Full Time, I Just Couldn't Turn It Down. I Just Took The Risk, And I Just Wanted To See If It Would Work And Thankfully It Did.

Let's Face It: I Am Not A Professional Runner.

I Swam At School A Lot. Long-distance Swimming In Pools, And Diving, Then When We Moved To Hastings When I Was 13 I Used To Swim In The Sea All The Time; I Loved It Out Of Season And When It Was Rough.

I Like Reading, I Like Boring Things, And Yet I Think People For Ages Had This Image Of Me That I Was On The Tube With A Chainsaw Looking For Any Likely Candidate.

It's Inevitable That If You Do Okay On Something Like That You Don't Just Annoy People, That It Will Make A Difference Because It Seemed Like Such A Lot Of People So, Yes I Would Have To Say That It Has Done.

Everyone In Comedy Thinks If You Go To The U.s. You Become A Global Star But, Unfortunately, I've Always Been A Bit Anti-american - So I Never Did.

I Love Everything About Books. I Love The Content, The Way They Look And Even The Lovely Way They Smell. I Think A Book Collection Says Something About You As A Person, And Certainly My Books Are Something I'd Want To Pass On For Future Generations.

Madness Isn't Altogether A Bad Thing In Comedy.

My Mum Is Bright, Ambitious, Well Read, Political And Very Bolshie: When My Dad Was Conscripted Into The Army And Posted To Libya, She Convinced Some General To Let Her Go With Him. I Don't Know How She Managed It.

I Thought I Was Funny As A Kid.

I Think It's Difficult, If You're A Quite Private Person Like I Am, To Write About Your Life Very Intimately.

Being Christian Towards Poor People Means Trying To Improve Their Lives And Give Them Back Some Self-respect.

You Know It's Time For A New Year's Resolution To Lose Weight When You Step On A Talking Scale And It Says, "one At A Time, Please.

I'd Love To Live In Kent But It's All A Question Of Work.

I Was Really, Because I Thought It Was Extremely Excruciating When I Watched A Tape Of It, That My Husband Taped For Me And I Never Watched It Again After That.

I Can Honestly Say I've Never Sold Any Arms To A Repressive Foreign Regime While Reassuring Everyone At Home That The Weapons Will Be Used For Nice Things.

One Thing Christians Do Have In Common Is That They Can't Help Coming Across As Smug.

There Have Been Some Very Extreme Hecklers In Audiences Whose Bile Was So Hateful And So Meant That It Would Be A Bit Frightening To Think That All I'm Doing Is Jokes And Yet Someone Hates Me That Much.

Who Do I Like? I Am A Big Fan Of French And Saunders - Not That That They Are Particularly Stand-up I Have To Say, But I Think They Have Been Great For Women And They Are Of Themselves Just Incredibly Funny Whether They Are Male Or Female.

Jeremy Clarkson Is Rather Charming, But I Can't Stomach His Public Persona. I Don't Like His Casual Racism And Casual Misogyny.

I Don't Know Really, It Doesn't Feel Like It Has Changed To Me But I Think To Have To Move With The Times. Try Out Different Areas And Not Get Stuck In 1978.

My Mum Taught Me To Knit When I Was A Child, And I Turn To It, For Some Weird Reason, When I'm Feeling Depressed.

I Went On The Pill When I Was 16, Put On Four Stone... So That Proved To Be A Very Effective Contraceptive.

I Know There Are Certain Men That Hate Women Or Don't Like Women, And In Order To Make Women Feel Small, They Tend To Isolate Them When They Bully Them. And Women Are Often Humiliated By It And Feel They Can't Do Anything About It. So My Advice To Women Would Be: There's Always Support Around For Those Sorts Of Things And If You Feel You're Isolated In Any Way, Or Being Bullied, You Must Talk To Someone About It.

I Think There's A Far More General Audience Now Because I've Done More Populist Stuff On Telly.

Again, With Two Small Children It's Incredibly Hard To Commit Yourself To Anything Because You're Just Getting Interested In It And Someone Comes Along And Goes I Want Thomas The Tank Engine On, And Screams The Place Down Until You Put It On.

I Don't Hold Any Candle For Drama Versus Comedy.

I Like To Read My Diary Occasionally To Remind Myself What A Miserable, Alienated Old Sod I Used To Be.

I Look Like Julian Clary On Steroids.

Fat People Are Brilliant In Bed. If I'm Sitting On Top Of You, Who's Going To Argue?

There Are Comics Who Treat Women Fairly Appallingly. But I Can Be Great Friends With Them Because I Don't Tend To Do That Ticking Of Boxes: It Can Make Life Too Simplistic.

I Have A Utilitarian Approach To Dressing; As Long As I Quite Like It And It Covers Me Up, I Don't Care What It Is.

Over The Years I Attempted To Make My Style A Bit More Relaxed 'cause The Initial Style You Couldn't Watch For More Than Ten Minutes Without Wanting To Kill Me.

It's Actually Very Hard When You're Settled In One Place To Completely Uproot Yourself And Go.

It's Got Too Much Hard Work Slapping Them And Telling Them To Shut Up.

I'm A Terrible Sort Of Non-fussy Eater, Really. I Don't Like Posh Food Very Much, And The More Ingredients Something's Got In It, The Less I Tend To Like It.

Regular Panelists On Shows Can Be Terrifying. They Own That Space, And Many Guest Comics Suspect They Are Favoured In The Edit, While Their Own Hilarious Jokes End Up Being Ejected Into The Ether.

When You Cry, You Don't Look Very Attractive; You Look Snotty And Blotchy. People Seem To Manage To Cry Quite Prettily These Days, And To Me, That Smacks Of Not Being Very Genuine.

Everything Becomes Magnified At Night. Sounds Travel In A Different Way, It's Dark, And Everything Seems Far More Spooky.

I Tend To Think The World Is A Bit Of A Miserable Place, So Anyone Who Can Add To People's Optimistic, Cheerful Side Is Doing A Good Job, Which Is What I Hope I'm Doing.

I Think I'd Concentrate On Young Women - Particularly Girls At School - And I Would Try And Build Into School Curriculums Much More Education About Relationships And How Girls (and Boys) Can Handle Them: Stuff About Consent And That Sort Of Thing.

I Like To Shock People.

So, My Style Has Hopefully Changed Over The Years And It Is More Relaxed, And I Do Tend To Smile And Have More Than One Expression These Days Hopefully - Which I Didn't At The Beginning.

People Can Forgive Each Other.

If You're A Fat Person - And Especially If You're A Woman - At All Stages Of Your Life You'll Get Abuse For It, So You Have To Work Out A Way Of Dealing With It. The Best Way Is To Be Humorous About It - That Defuses Any Tension.

When I Was A Nurse My Favourite Assignment Was The Anorexic Ward. I Sometimes Ate As Many As Seventeen Dinners

In The End, Punk Inevitably Burned Itself Out And Acted As A Bridge Across Which The New Romantics Could Sashay In Their Chiffon And Glossy Hair.

As A Comic And As A Nurse, It's Important To Look Calm On The Surface When You're Absolutely Crapping Yourself Inside. So, If Someone Is Waving A Machete At You, Which Has Happened To Me When I Was A Nurse, It's Important To Make That Person Feel That You're In Control.

Anything Is Good If It's Made Of Chocolate.

The Thing I Thought About Doing It Was It's Comic Relief And You've Got To Be Funny. So Although I Did Try To Sing Properly It Obviously Has Hilarious Results When You Can't Sing.

Privatisation Splits Hospital Services Into Increasingly Small Packages.

I Often Tell Audiences At The Start Of My Shows That I'm Not Gay Because I've Got Petitions From Lesbian Groups Saying 'can You Tell People You're Heterosexual Because You're Giving Us A Bad Name.'

They Say Revenge Is A Dish Best Eaten Cold, But For Most People, By The Time It's Ready To Eat, They Just Don't Fancy It Any More.

There Are So Many Cliches Associated With Mental Health - Such As The 'fine Line Between Lunacy And Genius' - Which Are, On The Whole, A Load Of Rubbish.

Most Of Us Manage The Fateful Things That Happen In Our Lives The Best We Can, Certainly Not To A Stalin-like 20-year Plan.

With Proper Acting, I Don't Know What I Would Play - I Got Sent A Script For A Play, And It Said In The Notes That My Proposed Character Was 'hideously Fat And Ugly'. That Made My Day. I Mean, I Do Know I Am No Oil Painting.

Television Provokes Strong Opinions, And Sometimes We Try A Bit Too Hard To Appeal To Everyone.

What They Did Was To Make A Pilot And It May Well Go To Series At The Next Festival But I Don't Have Any News On That. It's Already Been On Paramount Actually, But As It's On Paramount It'll Probably Be On Several More Times... Hopefully.

I Think My Comedy, The Put-downs I Do To Hecklers, Are The Accumulated Bitterness Of Years Of People Feeling That It's Perfectly Acceptable To Make A Comment On Your Appearance When They Don't Even Know You.

Does Anyone Really Go Into Nursing Intending To Be Apathetic, Cold And Removed From Suffering? I Find That Very Difficult To Believe.

I Think The Key Attributes For A Good Speaker Are Someone That's Articulate And Someone That Puts A Fair Amount Of Humour Into What They Do.

My Doctor Told Me I Should Get Out Of Breath Three Times A Week, So I Took Up Smoking.

I Must Be An Anorexic Because An Anorexic Looks In The Mirror And Sees A Fat Person.

I've Never, Ever Had People Being Aggressive To Me In Public Or Abusing Me, And Actually Quite A Lot Of Men Do Say To Me, 'you're Quite Good' - Though They Can't Bear To Go, 'you're Great.'

Wild Men Are So Enormously Attractive.

People Are So Different In Reality From The Picture Created Of Them On Tv. So It's All A Creation; Everything Is Made Up.

I Took My Husband To The Hospital Yesterday To Have 17 Stitches Out - That'll Teach Him To Buy Me A Sewing Kit For My Birthday.

I'm Sure Some Cynical People Would Point To That As The Main Reason For Doing It For A Lot Of People.

For A Long Time, People Assumed I Was Gay, So When I Got Married The Press Were All A Bit Shocked And Made A Big Deal Of It - And Ditto When I Had Children. I Felt Very Much Under The Microscope With Paps Outside The House Taking Pictures Of Me Getting The Baby Out Of The Car, It Was Excruciating. I Remember Getting Her Out Of The Car Seat And Thinking 'oh God I'm Going To Drop Her And They're Going To Take A Picture'. I Was So Nervous. Those Sorts Of Things Are Really Hard.

I Think Actors Go Along A Continuum From Simon Callow Down To Kind Of Ross Kemp, And I Like To Think Of Myself As The Ross Kemp Of Comedy. He's Very Good In 'east Enders' Because He Plays A Version Of Himself. I Think I Can Play A Version Of Myself - That's About All I Can Do.

An Overweight Guy Went To The Doctor Who Advised Him To Try A Keep Fit Dvd. But The Guy Said He Couldn't Be Bothered. “well” Suggested The Doctor, “try Something That Leaves You A Little Short Of Breath.” So The Buy Took Up Smoking.

Even Nice Things Don't Make You Happy When You're Tired.

Managers Of Hospitals, Over The Years Have Been Increasingly Recruited From Outside The Health Service And Although Their Experience Of Running A Supermarket Chain Might Allow Them To Balance The Books, It Does Not Mean They Have Any Insight Into How A Ward Should Be Managed And Patients Best Served.

I'm Just Trying To Spread The Word And Upturn The Myth That Actually You Should Be Resting After Cancer Treatment. You Shouldn't; You Should Be Getting Out And Doing Any Kind Of Exercise You Can. You Don't Have To Run A Marathon, But You Just Have To Up Your Activity Levels.

Men Are Fantastic - As A Concept.

Christians Have Always Been Fodder For Comedians Who Have Tended To Portray Them As Anoraks - Slightly Clammy, Beatifically Smiley Dullards With Barely A Personality Between Them.

I Wouldn't Say I Was Organised At All. I Just Have To Prioritise. Is It More Important For Them To Be Organised, Or To Have Their Dinner, Do You Know What I Mean?

Anybody Who Has Had The Pleasure Of Reading An Article About Themselves In The Press, Knows That On The Whole, There Is A Huge Amount Of Inaccuracy, Value Judgment And The Use Of A Crowbar To Insert Editorial Bias That Reflects The Current Political Leaning Of That Particular Paper.

Having Done A Normal Job For 10 Years, As A Psychiatric Nurse Dealing With Emergencies, I Know What Terrible, Hopeless Lives Some People Have. So In Many Ways, It's Great To Be Able To Wield The Financial Power That I Can, And Do Gigs, Fundraisers Or Give Money. I Feel Lucky I Can Help Out.

I Wasn't One Of Those Hideous Children Who Make Their Parents Sit Through Hour-long Performances When You're Seven. I Didn't Do Anything Like That Thankfully.

British Ferries Have Stopped Transporting Live Animals To The Continent. This Has Made It Very Difficult For England Fans To Get To Away Matches.

I Am A Hip-hop Artist, As You Probably Know. My Hip-hop Name Is Big Smalls.

My Ex-boyfriend Can Round Last Night, Which Was Weird Because I Didn't Know He Was In A Coma.

Funny Relationship

Work Motivates Me. I Love What I Do And I'm A Positive Person, I've Always Liked What I've Done As A Job - However Grim It Was.

No One I Know Is Actually So Rude As To Tell Me I've Become Duller Since Having Children. But I'm Sure They Think It.

I've Always Liked To Think I Could Do Anything I Wished As Well As - If Not Better Than - A Man. But I Wasn't Very Good At Rally Driving.

Each Generation Has A Backlash Against The Generation Before.

So, I Kind Of Rather Was Hoping That People Thought It Would Have A Nice Mixture Of Different Topics And It Also Takes In The Fact That I've Had Two Children Recently.

The Problem With Comedy Audiences - It's Like The Coliseum - When They See Someone Struggling, They Don't Feel Altruistic Towards Them. They Feel Slightly Repulsed By It.

And I Also Felt That No One In An Audience Could Abuse Me Worse Than The Sort Of Abuse I Had Had At Work As A Psychiatric Nurse.

The Funny Thing Is, I Don't Actually Think Of Myself As Fat At All. I Don't Think I Am. Not Really.

I Was Always Being Called Upon To Be An Honorary Boy Alongside My Brothers. I Don't Think I'd Be A Comic Now If It Hadn't Been For That.

One Of The Guys That Used To Run It - For Some Reason I've No Idea Why He Used To Call Me The Sea Monster And I Was Just Looking Around For A Name And Thought That'll Do. That Lasted For A Couple Of Years Probably.

I've No Interest In Fashion, Shoes, Handbags, Or Sweaty Shopping.

It Is Unrealistic To Expect An Entire Profession To Be Completely Good. There Are Bound To Be Some Individuals Who Are Stressed, Who Are Unkind, Who Are A Bit Rubbish At Their Job, Who Are In The Wrong Career.

I Have Two Brothers And We Basically Spent Our Lives Playing In The Woods, Falling In Ponds, Getting Chased By Wasps And Riding Donkeys That We Shouldn't Have Been Riding.

There's A General Sense That Women Are More Relaxed And Less Defensive In Comedy Than They Used To Be. I Think It's Easier Than It Was But Underlying It All There Is Still A Pretty Sexist View Of Women On Stage, Which To Me Hasn't Changed That Much.

Inside Every Fat Person There's A Thin Person Looking To Get Out - They've Just Eaten Them.

There Are 10-20 Times More Male Comics Than Female Comics; It's Something To Do With The Social Structure Of Society.

There's Something People Do To You When They Bully You That Makes You Feel Like You're On Your Own. But Don't Keep Things Inside, It's Really Damaging If You Do.

I Like Men. They Are Hugely Entertaining, But They Have A Lot Of Shortcomings And You Just Have To Bear Those In Mind.

I Used To Do Bell Ringing In Benenden Church. It Was Really Good Fun, Actually. My Best Friend's Dad Was The Local Vicar, And So It Was Expected As Her Best Friend That I Would Go To Church Every Sunday With Her.

On The Whole, You Can Have A Private Life And Be Famous. But When Milestones Happen In Your Life Like Having Children Or Getting Married, Privacy Goes Out Of The Window.

There Are Two Types Of People In This World: One Who Opens A Packet Of Biscuits, Has One And Puts The Rest Back In The Cupboard, And One Who Eats The Whole Packet In One Go.

I'm Not A Flag Waver For Obesity. It's Not Healthy, And You Have A Crap Life Because There Is Such A Downer On It.

Even When I Wasn't Overweight I Was Never One Of Those Girls Or Women Who Wanted To Look Nice. I Always Thought It Wasn't Important.

If You Want To Get A Pet For Your Child, I Suggest A Chicken So That When They Get Bored Of It After A Couple Of Days At Least You Can Have A Nice Roast Dinner.

One Thing Lots Of Christians Do Have In Common Is That They Can't Help Coming Across As Smug. This Winds Lots Of People Up, Particularly Because Famous Christians Pronounce On The Life Of The Poor From Their Very Lovely Affluent Homes Filled With Their Very Lovely Families And Attractive Pets.

The Comedian Sticks As Religiously To Her Theme As A Dancer Sticks To A Diet.

You Don't Really See Ugly People That Are Old, Or A Bit Grotty And Smelly, In The Media. If A Martian Came Down, They Would Think We Were All Tall, Thin, Attractive And Wealthy.

I Never Ever Take Into Consideration The Consequences Of My Actions Until It's Too Late.

Whatever Situation You Are In, That Is What Is Normal For You.

When You Have Children Your House Smells Very Unpleasant All The Time.

You Look Across The Board At Comedy Quiz Shows, And They Are Mainly Hosted By Men.

It's Very Difficult To Learn Not To Take Nasty Heckles Personally.

I Think A Lot Of Women Are Incredibly Tough And They're Just Really Admirable. Especially The Way That, Given What They've Got, They Just Manage To Carry On.

My Personal Opinion Is That You Can't Be Racist Towards White People. You Can Be Prejudiced About Them, But Being Prejudiced Isn't An Illegal Act, Whereas Being Racist Can Be.

Personal Opinions

When I Got Married, The Sun Ran The Headline: "here Comes The Bride, All Fat And Wide." Luckily, It Was A Few Days After The Wedding - But It Was Still Hideous To Read At A Great Romantic Moment.

My Preference Is Swimming In The Sea. I Find The Sea Is More Liberating, Wild And Good Fun Rather Than Plodding Up And Down A Pool.

The Way To A Man's Heart Is Through His Hanky Pocket With A Breadknife.

What Could Be Funnier Than A Fat Person Trying To Run A Marathon?

There's Lots Of Different Feminist Groups. It's Not As Straightforward As Just Looking Like A Plumber.

My Dad's A Very Sensitive Man, But As The Archetypal Rebellious Teenager, I Didn't Realise That.

I'm A Real Kentish Maid, You Know.

I've Always Been Criticised For How Filthy My Material Is. Victoria Wood Said To Me Once, 'i Wish I Was A Bit Ruder, Like You,' And I Said, 'well, I Wish I Was A Bit Cleaner, Like You.'

By Crying On My Bed, Drinking Quite A Lot And Feeling Tempted By Drugs. Well, Just Not Reading It To Be Perfectly Honest With You. I Know It's A Bit Of A Copout.

I Don't Like Doing Stand-up, Because I Don't Like Standing Up.

If I Am Totally Honest, I Would Have To Say That ''allo 'allo!' Was Not My Cup Of Tea, Even Though Lots Of People Loved It. For That Reason, I Find Comedy Fascinating. There Is A Huge Difference Between What People Find Funny.

It's A Video Release As Well So I Have To Be Perfectly Honest And Go, Probably Not Specifically For Dvd, But There Are Extra Bits On It That Aren't On Anything Else, So As Exciting As That Sounds.

As The Tories Know, The Problem With Setting Yourself Up As A Shining Example For Others To Follow Is That When You Get Caught Out, That Proverbial Substance Really Hits The Fan.

I Thought I Was Funny As A Kid. I Used To Play Tricks On My Brothers - I'd Tie A Two-shilling Piece To A Bit Of Cotton, Then Pull It Away As They Went To Grab It.

Some Men Are Deeply Likable But Have Attitudes I Don't Like. Does That Mean I Should Completely Dismiss Them? It's Like Saying: If Someone Votes Tory Can You Like Them? And, Yes, I Can. I Have Friends Who Vote Tory, And I'm Appalled, But That's Not To Say They're Not Great People In So Many Other Ways. We Have A Tendency To Oversimplify Things.

I Think It's So Easy When You Have Children Just To Turn Your Focus Inward On Your Family And Because, When They're Young, You Don't Sleep Very Much, You're Walking Around Like A Zombie Most Of The Time Anyway. It's A Really Important Part Of My Life To Have Good Friends, You Have To Work Quite Hard To Keep The Relationships Going But It's Worth It.

There Are Problems With Nursing - Such As The Issue Of Nurses All Having To Do Degrees These Days. But That Doesn’t Mean To Say The Entire Infrastructure Of Nursing Is Falling About And That It Is Populated By Unfeeling Psychopaths, Which Is, Frankly, The Implication Sometimes.

I Just Don't Like Travelling Very Much.

I Don't Know If We Will Ever Try Again Because Those Sort Of Things Are Very Hard To Organise But Yes, I've Known Doon For Years And John As Well But I Hadn't Met Will Before, And He Turned Out To Be A Good Laugh.

I Have Big Friends Who Won't Go Swimming Because They're Too Embarrassed About It. I Feel That's Such A Shame, Because Actually People Should Be Encouraging Fat People Who Are Exercising To Do It, Not Pointing And Laughing.

My Mum Always Felt That Women Deserved As Much As Men, And Should Have As Much Power, So I Suppose I Opted To Go Into A Very Male-dominated Arena To Try And Prove That.

How Do You Conduct An Intimate Relationship Where No One Ever Loses It? Where No One Ever Lashes Out, Where No One Ever Smacks Anyone In The Mouth?

Intimate Relationships

I Have Such Admiration For Single Mothers. I Simply Don't Comprehend How You'd Cope With That Intensity, The Lack Of Breaks, Ever, On Your Own.

I Cannot Abide Anyone Treating Another Human Being Like A Piece Of Dirt, Whatever The Context.

I Remember When Victoria Wood Started To Come Through, And I Thought She Was Great, Though She And I Are Very Different In Our Approach.

I Suspect Most Politicians Feel Overwhelmed Because People's Lives Are A Real Struggle, Full Of Unhappiness, And You Would Probably Feel Powerless To Do Anything About It.

When I Was A Nurse I Never Had Much Money, And I Was Still Happy Then.

Suffice To Say, Many Women Find Their First Appearance On A Comedy Panel Show To Be Their Last. Second Chances Seem To Be Given Less Often To The Female Of The Species.

People Say You Should Read Your Criticism Because It Will Make You A Better Person But It Doesn't. It Just Makes You A Sad Bitter Old Showbiz Nightmare.

Once You Get Labelled, People Expect You To Behave Within The Very Narrow Confines Of That Label.

When I Was At School You Got An Overall General Education, On Many Things, Even Just Basic Facts.

General Education

I Never Think, 'where Am I Going To Be In A Year's Time?' That Seems To Be A Sure Way Of Missing The Fact That You Might Be Quite Happy Now.

I Think Some People Ramp A Side Of Themselves Up For Performance Purposes.

I Have Seen Good Nurses And Bad Nurses. They Existed Along A Continuum: From Hard-working, Kind And Competent People, To Office-hugging, Bone-idle Types, To Apathetic, Disengaged Automatons.

Having Children Is Fab. They Keep Me Young And Make Me Get Up In The Morning.

I Have Friends Who Vote Tory, And I'm Appalled, But That's Not To Say They're Not Great People In So Many Other Ways.

I Think Self-esteem Is Fluid. It's Not A Fixed State, And So Some Days Are Better Than Others.

I Think There's A Danger That We're Moving Towards A State Where The People We Are Expected To Admire Are Almost Not Human Anymore, And I Don't Like That. I Prefer It When Someone Looks Like A Nice Person, And You Think, 'i Could Have A Laugh With Them In The Pub.'

I Do Say No To Lots Of Things, Actually! I Know It Doesn't Look Like It. But I Have A Tendency To A) Be Rubbish At Saying No, And B) Be Pushed By Some Kind Of Protestant Work Ethic.

My Father Was An Engineer And My Mother Was A Social Worker, And They Met As Young Socialists. That Probably Tells You Everything You Need To Know About My Attitude To Money - I've Never Really Been Bothered About It.

A Lot Of People Do That Kind Of Nostalgia Stuff Believing That They Were Very Happy In Their Teenage Years, But That's Probably Just An Illusion.

I Did Try When I Wasn't Doing The Singing To Do As Much Comedy As I Could Because I Thought With Comic Relief You Are Duty Bound To Anyway.

I Read That Book Fat Is A Feminist Issue, Got A Bit Desperate Halfway Through And Ate It.

I Used To Get Nervous About Three Weeks Before A Gig... Now I've Managed To Condense It Down To A Manageable Ten Minutes.

I've Never Been A Fan Of Euphemism.

I Made A Supreme Effort Not To Do That Thing That Parents Do, Which Is To Bore People Without Children To Death By Going On And On About How Funny Their Children Are, So There's None Of That Hopefully.

I Tried To Eat Better Too, But When You're On Tour You Literally Just Eat Some Hideous Pork Pie On The Motorway On The Way To A Show. It's A Really Unhealthy Lifestyle: You're Up Late, Drinking Loads Of Coffee To Stay Awake, Drinking Loads Of Alcohol Because You're Socialising With People.

I Find It Difficult To Judge Myself, But People Say That I Have Become A Bit More Socially Acceptable Over The Years In Terms Of My Material; Which Apparently At The Beginning - Though I Never Really Intended It To Be - Was Man Hating And Now Is Just A Bit More Cuddly.

School Was Great. There Were No Boys There, Which Didn't Really Bother Me At The Time Because I Had Two Brothers, So I Was Quite Pleased Not To Spend Any More Time With Boys.

It Wasn't A Conscious Effort To Have Kids Later. It Was Just The Way Life Goes.

A Good Culture In A Hospital Can Absorb And Manage A Few Bad Nurses, But Once The Culture Becomes Bad In Itself, Bad Nursing Practice Is Much Harder To Hide.

Usually, What People In The Public Eye Do Is Pick Two Charities And Just Exclusively Work For Them. But That Means You Have To Turn People Down All The Time, So I Try And Do Something For Everyone That Asks Me, At Least Once.

There Are Lots Of People Who Believe That Caricature Of Me The Tabloids Created, So They Think They Don't Like Me.

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