Phoebe Waller-Bridge

“I suppose the cult of the strong woman character on TV has probably been misinterpreted in so many different ways, meaning that a woman can't be emotionally complicated or want things or can't be weak in moments.”

“I think it helped that 'Fleabag' had such a dramatic arc to it, even though it was disguised as a comedy.”

“I'm a massive control freak.”

“I don't think the challenge is asking an audience to like a character; it's inviting them to try and understand them... then making that journey entertaining and worth their while. It's a classic trick, but it's human, and it allows characters to have more depth.”

“You have to make an audience feel like they can - and want to - change something about what they are watching. And that might be the thing that galvanises them in the end, that makes them come out of themselves and say, 'No! Don't do that!'”

“After the play of 'Fleabag,' we had conversations with different channels and with film companies about whether 'Fleabag' should be a half-hour sitcom, an hourlong, serialized drama, or a film. And I knew that it couldn't be a drama because I wanted to hide the drama - that had to be the surprise. I knew it had to be comedy.”

“I'd go so far as to say I was bullied into writing, but sometimes you need that.”

“There's nothing that makes me cry and laugh more than stories about friendship.”

“Wouldn't it be exciting if all women just went on strike? Just a woman's strike. Everything would fall apart pretty quickly then, wouldn't it?”

“I see the portrayal of any believable female character as feminist.”

“I think it's part of human nature, that we want to achieve. It's definitely a kind of cosmopolitan nature, wanting to achieve in the fast lane.”

“To me, most comedy is dark comedy.”

“You don't often see a cross section of female characters interacting with each other at the top of a chain.”

“I think if you've got people on your side, if you've got people really laughing, you are able to make them cry.”

“I feel liberated being around women who are liberated.”

“No one would touch me with a barge pole as an actress. It hit hard. I thought, 'What am I doing? This is a stupid idea!' It's like throwing yourself into a massive pond, and you feel like you're going to drown so quickly.”

“I'm just constantly on the verge of bursting into tears with joy.”

“I'd been waiting to turn thirty my whole life. For some reason, when I was eleven, I was like, 'I know thirty's going to be good. Get through those twenties!'”

“אני חושבת על האנשים שאני יכולה לקיים איתם יחסי מין. זה לא אובססיה. אני פשוט לא יכולה להפסיק לחשוב על סקס.”

“אושר זה לא להאמין במשהו אלא במישהו.”