Lee Evans

“The most painful place is the best place for me. It always has been.”

“When I get up on stage, I lose all my inhibitions.”

“I wasn't sporty or academic, so to avoid getting picked on I'd play the fool.”

“I take the bins out, do the washing-up and all the run-of-the-mill things like that and that's how I like it to be.”

“I do what interests me.”

“We used to quote Mel Brooks lines when we grew up. He's my biggest hero.”

“My dad always said to me, 'You have got to work,' so I constantly worked and did comedy tours.”

“We were very working class and there is that chip on your shoulder from day one, but then I went to art college and met these middle-class nutcases who said, 'Do what you like, go mad.'”

“Meeting Mel Brooks was like talking to a drum kit. He talks in rhythm - it's like 'Ba-ba-da, ba-ba-daaa, whoossssh.' 'Endgame' is like a musical as well, with all those pauses and different rhythms.”

“Stand-up is therapy. I'm sure every comedian has something wrong with them.”

“I only need 50 quid a week - what do you spend it on?”

“The one thing you can do if you've earned a few bob is buy your freedom.”

“I can sit there for ages, with my head in my hands. It's mostly out of being criticised, because then I don't feel worthy and slope off on my own.”

“When I'm about to die I want to know that I've done something constructive.”

“I'm slightly insecure about looking at myself in the mirror, let alone seeing myself up on screen where I have shaved off all my bodily hair.”

“Endgame' has a definite association with my life. I see Hamm as The Establishment and me as the monkey boy who comes out with dribble and banality.”

“You can waste your life being hospitable to people.”

“I really wanted to be slick - I used to wear a suit just to be slick. But the suit got a bit ragged, and I got faster and faster, and I became an exaggeration of myself.”

“I never get that thing, everyone starts singing, then everyone else sings the same, and I'm like, 'How did you know the words? I've just met you.' I never get musicals.”

“I'm not an actor. I leave proper acting to proper actors.”