Tamsin Greig

“I think comedy is the perfect vehicle for that which is slightly beyond life.”

“I did a drama degree, went to secretarial college, then got a job with a theatre company in Birmingham. It's been a slow burn, which doesn't seem to have gone out.”

“I suppose I flee to life. I'm most interested when conversations become difficult.”

“I am interested in shows that are not out-and-out gag fests: you see the truth of a broken heart behind them. That is what life is like: it's really funny, you see funny things as soon as you step out of the room, but underneath that is a whole bag of broken hearts. It's that real pain and that real hilarity that makes life so intriguing.”

“Families are families. We've all got them, more or less, and we all know what it's like to be bullied by another generation.”

“I think that if you take somebody out of their comfort zone, they're going to dislike people because they're not liking themselves in a situation.”

“I feel like a 16-year-old trapped inside a dead woman's body.”

“We live in a fast-paced culture where we're asked to make snap decisions all day long, so I suppose cash-point donations feed into the immediacy of our life experience. So it's a great idea. But I think it needs careful handling.”

“I've long thought that for my last meal on earth I will be perfectly happy with a granary loaf toastie with melted crunchy peanut butter and banana.”

“When I was growing up, I was obsessed with 'Cagney and Lacey.'”

“I am not stupid - I'm not young, and I'm not beautiful.”

“I try not to look any further ahead than the next cup of tea. You never know if that cuppa will come or not, do you?”

“Carelessness makes me cross. And unkindness.”

“I tried to get into the National Youth Theatre and didn't, and I tried to get into drama school and didn't, and then I went to university and was really delighted that I went there. I think having the word 'no' can be quite creative.”

“If a job fell from Heaven that was in America, I'd have a go, but I don't feel compelled to go and hunt it down.”

“Radio listeners often have a very fertile imagination when it comes to body shape.”

“If you stop being scared, that's when entropy sets in, and you may as well go home.”

“When I was 17, a neighbour I knew well died of cancer, and I became au pair to her three little girls. In circumstances like that, when you can't really help, I think it's a human response to do something beyond oneself. So I did a sponsored parachute jump for Cancer Research. It was exciting and ridiculous.”

“When we were growing up, women in their late 40s generally didn't dye their hair.”

“I was a cleaner while at university. The job wasn't bad, but I was amazed by how badly cleaners are treated - how disrespected they are by the people they work for.”