Oh, I can't sleep, whatever - it's a huge problem. The comedian's thing is you self-medicate with alcohol and knock yourself out - but obviously, that's not a long-term strategy.

I think what I do is borderline art. Most people who do borderline art have to have other jobs, so I'm very grateful.

When I started on the London circuit in 1989, nationwide there were about 150 to 200 people that were what you could call alternative comedians - that weren't club comics. Now, last year when the Laughing Horse chain of clubs held a new acts competition, a thousand people entered. So, there are 800 people more.

I'd quite like to write a book about comics, actually. But trying to write about comics as literature, which I don't think anyone's really done before. Sometimes they're more like fan books, and I'd quite like to write one about the Marvel universe over the last 50 years. It's an unprecedented achievement to create that length of continuity.

I hesitate to deposit money in a bank. I am afraid I shall never dare to take it out again. When you go to confession and entrust your sins to the safe-keeping of the priest, do you ever come back for them?

When gross public debt exceeds 90 percent of GDP, economic growth tends to decline considerably.

We don't spend money properly in Washington, D.C. We jump these massive bills to massive bills.

We all need to save money to send our kids to college, to buy our first house, and to retire. But the truth is that most of us don't save very much.