Alexei Sayle

I feel really ambiguous about the psychology of people trying to do good in the world.

A lot of those comics can't hold down relationships and they've got no other life apart from performing. They sleep in their Jags and a lot of them can't even talk. All they can do is tell gags.

I don't think I'd ever get thin, but I don't see why I should necessarily think that I couldn't... You can't live your life for your routines.

I like the south of Spain, notably for the Moorish influence and the weather.

It seems easier to make a career out of comedy now than it was in the 1980s.

I'm fascinated by comedy.

You can't do comedy with a beard.

If I won the lottery I'd start a charity that helped little family hardware stores, cobblers and fruit shops open in city centres.

I wanted to write about how people's beliefs shift.

I liked 35 and in both my novels that is the age of the lead characters. I tried making them my age but they just seemed to keep moaning about stuff.

I suppose the common idea of me is that I'm going to be someone who's hyper and cracking jokes all the time, but people who meet me are soon disabused of that notion.

But as in all cults, what's central to the Communist Party is the belief system and the elimination of nuance. From there you're very slowly led down the road to fanaticism and mass murder.