Julian Clary

“It was all about wanting to get revenge. Pathetic, really, but it still is the motivation.”

“However light-hearted you try to be about it, the loss of youth, and everything that goes with it, is quite a trauma.”

“I was lightweight - that was the whole point of me.”

“I think Australians like a bit of vulgarity.”

“It's almost a way of life. I know what makes me laugh.”

“There is a single entendre, but I don't know about a triple one.”

“It's a wise thing to hold back.”

“I knew that this was what I wanted to talk about on stage. There was no point being coy about it, or pretending that I wasn't gay. That was the substance of my whole act. If you took that away, there would be nothing left.”

“Just because someone's dead doesn't mean it's over. My grandfather died more than 25 years ago, but I still think of him a lot and smell his smell.”

“Rodents can come across as being quite vacant in the personality stakes.”

“If I've been here a long time, I think: I must go to London and speak to someone or see a bus.”

“I didn't think of myself as a tart, but I wouldn't argue with anyone who did.”

“The whole business of getting famous was good fun, but it was a long time ago.”

“I thought a dignified thing to do would be to live in the country by the time I'm 50 and write books.”

“I'm currently in an interesting correspondence with a nun about forgiveness.”

“I'm not sure how aware of the rest of the world I am. I live a rather sheltered existence.”

“I get just as much of a thrill out of constructing a good sentence that gets a laugh at the end as I do from a joke.”

“The public has always had affection for gay entertainers. The time was right for an out gay entertainer.”

“The English like eccentrics. They just don't like them living next door.”

“I thought they were staring at me because I was gay. But it was because I was on the telly.”