Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm a fan of Douglas Adams, yes.
It's always more interesting to do new things.
I think pompous accents are inherently funnier.
Everyone in our family just kind of leans on my mum.
If you're bored and you look bored, that's your fault.
When I'm not working, I'll spend time with loved ones.
My uncle used to take me out at night shooting rabbits.
I'm not making comedy albums. That's too much effort for one joke.
I'd tell my teenage self he did the right thing never getting a proper job.
I just find anyone who's arrogant and pompous is always the funniest for me.
What I love about 'Toast' is that there's always new stuff you can do with him.
If your catchphrase has appeared in men's toilets, then you know you've made it!
If you're a thoughtful person, you won't want to be in people's faces all the time.
Most of the things I do are inspired by things that frightened me when I was young.
I draw from the most pompous people, who are the people that make me laugh the most.
Something like 'Knock Knock,' I was trying to do a Joe Meek, 'Johnny Remember Me'-type thing.
I find the fact that my voice has been heard all over the world more insane than anything else.
Yes, I performed at the Secret Policeman's Ball at Radio City Music Hall and loved every minute.
Make sure you own a good bed and a good pair of shoes because if you're not in one, you're in the other.
I don't like to think of anyone waking up every morning amazed that things haven't gone their way in life.
Oh God, I've done telesales. It doesn't get much lower than that, really. That's the job I enjoyed the least.
I'm not going to do anything that I don't think is very funny, even if it's a lot of money or massive exposure.
While I've got all my arms and legs and my eyes working at the same time, I've got to make as much stuff as I can.
If somebody has no sense of humor, I think that's a great place to start for British comedy in terms of your character.
I always come back to the gentler stuff like Simon & Garfunkel and the Fleet Foxes' first album - that's quite an odd one.
Actors are a great subject for a comedy. They're inherently funny because, like sportsmen, they take themselves so seriously.
If it's funny or it's good, then yeah, I'll do it. Whether it's big-screen or whatever wouldn't be the deciding factor for me.
I still believe that the best art - be it music, comedy, painting, etc. - is the art that hasn't been asked for, or is expected.
A lot of actors do that - they blame their failure on their agents or their photos. But that is just putting off the real issues.
A lot of my songs are about things that concern me personally, not a heightened version of myself or any of the characters that I play.
I've been collecting synths since the late '80s. They weren't very fashionable then, so you could pick up pretty cool stuff for a few hundred quid.
There's always another idea round the corner that I want to do. So while I can, it's important to do them, because there will come a time when I can't.
The folk that you get on Radio 1 isn't the sort of thing that I'm into: it's kind of too uptempo and jaunty for me. I prefer a bit of atmosphere and a bit of darkness.
When you come to the end of a TV project, it's good to be able - and I'm kind of lucky - that I can just go into a different medium, make another album, or do whatever.
It's a different world: when I'm writing 'Toast,' I've got one foot in 1974 and one foot in the modern day, because the modern day is nowhere near as funny or interesting.
Nowadays, all actors talk about is what they don't eat and what kind of juicers they've got. That wouldn't have been a conversation John Hurt would have had with Tom Baker.
I showed my dad the first episode of 'Toast of London' the other night. He laughed a bit, but when it finished, he just turned to me and said, 'You're an idiot.' I loved that.
The only reason I'm associated with 'the Boosh' is because Richard Ayoade, who was meant to be doing Bainbridge, couldn't do it because of something with Channel 4, so I ended up doing it.
Things like, when a total stranger says, 'I want you to record something for my forthcoming wedding,' that can be a bit tiresome. But it's a high-class problem. It doesn't hurt my feelings.
I didn't know how interested I was in performing until I did 'Darkplace.' I hadn't done anything really up until that point. I didn't mind the cameras, and I didn't know that I would enjoy it.
Before doing 'Darkplace' in 2003, I was temping and at call centres, and that was pretty bad. Then I was at the London Dungeon, which I loved doing, and then from that, I was on Channel 4 doing 'Darkplace.'
When 'Toast' got on Netflix, I noticed a difference. It was something I thought that only myself and a few people would find funny, and suddenly it's on a very large platform. Now it kind of belongs to everyone.
A lot of my favourite songs have Eno involved, but I love the work he does on the first two Roxy Music albums. He's creating atmospheres as opposed to composition, and it's a beautiful mixture with everything else in that band.
Closest to my heart is probably 'Toast of London' because I came up with the character, based on a bunch of people I worked with in the industry. And Channel 4 didn't mess with it. Head to screen, it was exactly as I wanted it.
I've never had a plan for any of this: there was never a plan for, 'Right, I must get on the TV,' 'Right, I must have my own show,' 'Right, I must be a movie star.' I don't think like that. I haven't ever had that sort of interest.
I try not to see myself as anything, as that would be embarrassing. But if I had to label myself, I'd probably say I was an artist due to the fact that I enjoy working within the arts on different platforms, of which comedy is just one.
I used to not really know any other people when I was young that wanted to play music - that's why I learned everything myself. As a result, you kind of naturally become an engineer of sorts, because you've got to learn how to record everything.
I think there's a chance that aliens might just see us as beef cattle, so that's us done. Whether they would inhabit us in that way is pretty fanciful because they'd probably just get from us what they could, and then I just see us as fast food.
'Toast' is based on a bunch of actors but especially one guy. I worked with him on a film and realise that if I mentioned any actor who was around his age but more successful, it would drive him insane. So from sheer devilment, I'd do it on purpose.
When I realise that I don't have a lot of time left to do what I'm meant to do in terms of buying things, that's when things begin to feel Christmassy for me - when I realise that time is against me, and I've got to act; otherwise, I'll look ridiculous.