Bill Bailey

“Riding a horse and using a phone camera is tricky but if you don't take pictures or record the moment, you lose it. You want to have a record of it.”

“I used to like beer, but it makes me feel slightly queasy.”

“When I was in Cardiff, playing with the National Orchestra of Wales, they said they get letters from people complaining if they're smiling during the concert. Nuts, isn't it? As if you have to respect the solemnity of the music by not smiling. Music is this joyful thing that enriches our lives, and you're not supposed to smile?”

“It's a lovely moment when everyone's part of something greater than the sum of its parts. That encapsulates what a comedy gig should be, with the comic as the lightning rod, the Norse mischief god, getting the audience to do something they wouldn't necessarily do.”

“I prefer the simple things and I love walking in the countryside, or going camping... but simplicity is hard. It's easier to over-complicate things.”

“I met Amy Winehouse a few times and she was always funny, charming and self-deprecating - just a delight to be around.”

“Doing comedy around the world is a way of finding out how people tick.”

“At yoga you get some sense of spiritual space so that people don't intrude. You can go there and close your eyes and no one will talk to you. People are too worried about not fainting to bother with some bloke who was on the telly.”

“It's been Bill for so long people think my name is William, but it's not, it's Mark.”

“I realised that the 'future' is different to how I imagined it. When I was a kid I thought it would be a bright, shiny Tomorrow's World. It isn't.”

“I've always been envious of certainty, of people who always seemed to have a plan for their lives.”

“People perceive me as this kind of hippy intellectual, reflecting and communing with nature or in a pyramid somewhere chanting. Really, no. I love speed, fast things, quad and road bikes, and bombing down a mountain.”

“I was always part of the end-of-term review at school. We would mercilessly mock any slight weakness in the teachers.”

“I had this plan that David Byrne was going to come through the West Country one day, think, 'Who's that guy?' and ask me to go on tour with them.”

“You spend a lot more time on your own as an only child. And there's space to allow your imagination to take flight.”

“The two worst enemies of comedy are lack of sleep and not having had a decent meal.”

“I was an only child but I never longed for a sibling. It just didn't occur to me.”

“Comedy is an indoors thing, so I take every opportunity to go outside. A lot of that involves finding places that are remote, or places where you can look at birds, or do mountain biking or paddle boarding or walking.”

“My mother was a classic matriarchal figure. She'd sing round the house and always had music on.”

“London is a great place to be over Christmas.”