Growing older has helped me become empathetic to other people and their reasons for making choices. I used to think there was a definitive right and wrong and that only I knew what they were and so I should be dictator of the world.
— Sara Pascoe
With Netflix, we accept the democracy: not every show needs to be watched by everyone. And let's face it, we don't have time to watch everything. When will I sleep? I used to read and wash my hair. If TV gets any better, I'll have to give up work.
When I was a child, I had an intense fear of going to prison. I wasn't on the run or anything - my crimes were small and they were all against fashion. But I had nightmares about accidentally killing someone, or being falsely accused.
People learn more when they're enjoying themselves.
Backstage at the Apollo isn't a fun place to be. It's a bit like a prison: small rooms filled with warm Diet Coke.
I have to remind myself that I am a comic, I'm not a politician.
Pride and Prejudice' is set in the early 19th century. At that time, women had the legal status of children. A daughter was the property of her father until marriage, when her ownership passed to her husband.
I wrote on my website that veganism isn't right for everyone and the first thing you have to consider is nutrition. I was saying that some use veganism as a form of eating disorder and that careful vegans replace what they cut out of their diet.
I don't feel like a very feminine woman sometimes. I feel manly. When I was in my twenties I would say I was a masculine girl and now I realise the whole idea of femaleness is a construct. I'm a boyish girl, who talks over people and I do a boyish job.
Watching the news, there seems to be an empathy failure and miscommunication.
I'm always thinking about being inclusive in my sentences.
When you're the person in the room with the microphone, you have a platform to talk about whatever you want, and it's much more interesting if we're discussing something that feels relevant.
I've been an actor since I was 18. So that's my proper job. But I was not a very successful actor, if you consider being able to afford your rent successful. I did lots of old people's tours; reminiscence tours.
Standup is a place where, as long as it's funny enough, you can say your most embarrassing things, shameful things and disappointing things.
I used to steal from the library, which is a crime and it's bad, but I just couldn't get enough books, and I also didn't like to give them back once I'd read them. I just read everything.
Ten years ago, I went to visit my dad in Australia. I walked to the edge of a cliff and looked over and tripped. I righted myself but my head was over the edge. No one saw it.
I was exceptionally opinionated as a teenager, never afraid to rant and ruin a birthday party or cinema trip.
Orange Is the New Black' is the womanliest TV show that has ever existed. It doesn't merely pass the Bechdel test, it gets all As and goes straight to Oxbridge, even though it's only three years old.
When I was at university, I did essays on political theatre. And it was really frustrating that the ideas weren't reaching the people they were talking about. Standup is the one place where you are talking to every level of society.
I started comedy as a hobby, really, and it still doesn't seem like a proper job.
I always get nervous before a gig, so I look over my writing, trying not to fantasise about all the things that could go horribly wrong.
Regency literature was too coal-y for me, too long-winded and describey. I preferred modern books where you had to read other books explaining what the first book meant to know what happened.
If you view history as a backdrop, set-dressing or fiction, then 'Pride and Prejudice' is hugely entertaining. My reread saw the misery of the female characters' reality. My new reaction was sadness and fury. Knowledge ruins everything!
I became a vegetarian at seven. I went on a school trip to a farm and loved the animals.
If we accept ourselves as animals, and have empathy and tolerance, compassion to others, understand that humans are territorial, aggressive and have gender aspects, then we can change things.
I wanted the audience to write stories and then read them out if they wanted to. It's always the best part of the show because people are so imaginative.
I did an open air gig in Regent's Park and that's an incredible venue because the sun sort of sets while you're on stage and you can see the audience so brightly.
There's nothing you can't tell to an audience, because they're all people who've had lives. The only thing they don't want to watch is someone who's really angry or out of control.'
The definition of comedy is 'unsafe space' - you can't control what people laugh at.
When I was little, I wore shoes that were too small for me for years, so my feet grew weird, so my little toenails grow and then they just fall off and then they grow again.
Since I was really small, my mum says I wouldn't talk at breakfast because I would just read the back of the cereal packet.
I want my funeral to be uncomfortably quiet.
Sometimes I am lucky enough to hang out with Tim Key and he is constantly funny. Every moment. When I haven't seen him for a bit I do his voice in my head to entertain myself.
I didn't watch TV in the 90s and early 00s. I was too busy trying to grow out a fringe and perm.
I would have been an essayist in the 18th century. Maybe I'd have had one gag in the piece, but essentially I'd be saying something.
The Apollo seats 3,600 people: I could hear them making a huge noise for Milton Jones and Lee Mack. If the audience doesn't make the same amount of noise for you, you feel like you've failed.
I thought all comedy was stupid. I went to watch a friend do stand-up and I thought absolutely everyone was terrible.
The love of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy is reliant on the restrictions of Regency culture, their passion is created by repression.
The pancreas releases insulin to make you ready for fight or flight when you're scared. So if you don't fight or flight - if you stay onstage, telling jokes - then your body stores more fat in your tummy which makes you insulin resistant. All comedians have fat bellies, even if they exercise.
My earliest food memory is being starving hungry after swimming. I think that's quite common with children: the second you're out of the water you want to have a Twix, a cup of tea and chips and salty stuff.
There's social media where people's politics are out there, they're forwarding articles and seem engaged, but it's only online. We tweet and pat ourselves on the back, thinking we have done something, said we're interested, but it needs more work.
I'm a vegan and London's great for vegans.
I'm proud that I can do that material in a club gig where a lot of people think Page 3's a bit of fun and you're the feminist with the problem. It's always funnier to say: this is my opinion, look how we disagree.
But with 'Newsrevue' I started doing some characters, and I just loved how you were in control. You could write something that day and go and do it that night, rather than waiting for a job that involves other people. So I did character stand-up, and then proper stand-up, and I loved it; I got addicted.
We don't live in a world where, if you commit a crime, your life's over. We as a society believe in rehabilitation. We believe in second and third chances.
I get a fizzy thing in my brain, like a nice glass of wine, and I want to know facts and I want to understand.
There was a girl I was best friends with at college; I always used to kiss the boys she liked. I'd like to apologise to her.
When I was 14, I auditioned for Michael Barrymore's 'My Kind Of People'.
