A biography for Paul O'Gradyhasn’t been written yet.
“Every week I have a disaster in my kitchen. The fire alarm goes off repeatedly. But it doesn't stop me being adventurous.”
“I go in the butchers and there's not a lot of meat I can eat these days, with having all the animals.”
“I love looking after animals. I find it very enjoyable.”
“I make a wonderful cure-all called Four Thieves, just like my mum did. It's cider vinegar, 36 cloves of garlic and four herbs, representing four looters of plague victims' homes in 1665 who had their sentences reduced from burning at the stake to hanging for explaining the recipe that kept them from catching the plague.”
“I've got four dogs, eight chickens, 10 sheep and six pigs.”
“I'd rather do community service than sit and write a load of Christmas cards.”
“I enjoyed school - although I ran away on the first day. I'd reminded the teacher that it was nearly time for 'Watch With Mother' on TV.”
“My primary school teacher once poured a bottle of curdled school milk forcefully down my throat. Then I threw it up all over her suede shoes. I'd rather have drunk from the spittoon in Barney's barber shop.”
“I like working with kids; they keep you going.”
“I don't want to sit until I'm 90 with people running around after me. I'm not one for sitting on the couch.”
“I don't live with people, that's why my relationships last. I'm not romantic. Even when I was a teenager if somebody asked if they could hold my hand I'd say, - no, it's not heavy, I can hold it myself, thank you'.”
“Writing is such a solitary existence, and I can only do it late at night.”
“Channel 4 are a great bunch of people to work with and the crew are lovely. Working at ITV was like being in the court of Caligula.”
“I don't want to sound like Catherine Cookson but I've worked since I was eight, with a paper round and in a fruit and veg shop. Taking a pay cut won't demotivate me, not at all. It's not about money in the first place. It's about the job.”
“I don't like awards ceremonies. I'd sooner go to the pub with mates I've known for years.”
“I went to work for the Civil Service. I'd wanted to work for the Ministry of Defence because I had some far-fetched idea that it had something to do with the Avengers, but I ended up in Social Security.”
“I can eat beef, provided it's minced in disguise. I couldn't eat a gammon steak. Forget it.”
“I was born late - what my mother calls the last kick of a dying horse. There's three of us children, but I'm 13 or 14 years younger than my brother and sister.”
“I was Popeye mad when I was a kid, and I'd eat spinach until the cows came home.”