“I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.”

“Those of you who are not aware of my brilliant career as a stand up comic, I'm not aware of it either so we might well wonder what we're doing here.”

“It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.”

“I always feel that when I come to Edinburgh, in many ways I am coming home.”

“I'm still living the life where you get home and open the fridge and there's half a pot of yogurt and a half a can of flat Coca-Cola.”

“I have a love-hate relationship with white silk.”

“One longs for a director with a sense of imagination.”

“I have every sympathy for writers. It's a mystery to me what they do. I can edit. I can cross out and say, 'I'm not saying that' or, 'How about we move this to here? Wouldn't that make that bit of the story better?' But where any of it comes from is beyond me. I will never write a play or a novel.”

“The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.”

“I love perfumes. Every morning when my girlfriend and I come down to the courtyard in our block of flats we're assailed by the most delicious scent - jasmine round a doorway. It almost makes me swoon.”

“Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.”