Hollywood was possible for a while! Why didn’t I go along with it? Well, the other things that were pulling me back were more important. Being at home, being in the same marriage, these things...

I’ve never had a particular skill. I can’t cook, dance, play an instrument, speak a foreign language. This used to worry me. I’d think, when I’m grown up, at 18, then I made it 21,...

So many people had been asking me to write an autobiography, or threatening to write my biography without any input from me, that I thought I’d better tell my story before other people told it...

[There] are people who make a complete and utter mockery of ‘democracy’ and ‘equality’ – they’re the casualties of the primitive rules of competition which run our society, and the welfare state just keeps them...

I saw novelists as being admirable people and I thought… I thought… maybe, one day, I could be one of them.

I can be me, and people seem quite happy with that.

I’ve been lucky enough to stand on both poles, but the place that seemed the remotest to me was Butugychag, a former gulag in Siberia. It is completely cut off from the rest of the...

If you had a successful TV show, people wanted to see you live. Promoters had had practice with pop groups, and ‘Python’ achieved a similar status. We also had lots of rock star fans –...

I am very cautious of people who are absolutely right, especially when they are vehemently so.

One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle.

I’ve never particularly liked travelling with large groups or being told where to go by somebody else. I prefer to find out for myself.