Fame is an upshot of what I do. If you're a successful comedian or actor, then you're a famous one. But it's not the driving force. It's a by-product.

I'm a fan of the kind of political correctness that is about not promoting prejudice. But some people in America are offended by equality because when you've had privilege for so long, equality feels like oppression.

I don't know why other people are concerned about other people's lives that much.

How many times have we seen reality celebrities fall from grace - often through no fault of their own - and then go on a show like 'Celebrity Big Brother' and say, 'I want to show the public a different side of me.' And I'm screaming at the telly going, 'This is not therapy. This is voyeurism!'

What makes 'Derek' a different kind of sitcom - if it is even a sitcom - is its sincerity.

I don't mind what people say about me as long as it's an opinion or the truth. If someone says, 'He's the worst comedian in the world,' that's fine. If someone says, 'His face makes me want to punch the TV,' that's fine. But if they say, 'Oh, and I know for a fact he hunts squirrels,' I go: no, no, no... that's a lie.

There are no Hollywood stars speaking out for the elderly. They're forgotten, bewildered, and I don't think it's because people are cruel or don't care. It's because you don't want to think about your own mortality. I think people don't talk about it enough.

Stephen Merchant looks like a Muppet. I mean, he looks like Beaker.

Your reputation is still the most important thing that you've got.

I love 'The Godfather' and 'Casablanca' - great stories, acted well, made well.

If you spend your days doing what you love, it is impossible to fail. So I go about my days trying to bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. And then everyone gets furious about it. And then I sit back and say, 'I did that!'

I do the Golden Globes because they say I can say what I want. I wouldn't have that at the Oscars.

Humor is to get us over terrible things.

If I just cut out the food, I'd have a six-pack. I'd look like Matthew McConaughey.

Believe it or not, I work out regularly.

Comedy is easy for me, but with drama, I don't know... it's still the Holy Grail.

I'm a scientist at heart, so I know how important the truth is. However inconvenient, however unattractive, however embarrassing, however shocking, the truth is the truth, and wanting it not to be true doesn't change things.

I was David Bowie-thin up to about 28, and then I discovered food.

My career, I look at it in a Darwinian framework. I'm going to do exactly what I want, and I'm going to survive, or I'm not. I'm not going to pander. I'm not going to change things. I'm not going to do focus groups. I'll live and die by the sword. I don't care. Because I couldn't live with myself.

I'd never tried as hard with anything as I did with 'The Office,' and it was one of the things I'm proud of. I wasn't trying to be famous or a comedian, but this opportunity came along when I was 38 or 39. It came late, and I couldn't have been prouder of it.

Ego is hilarious - especially the vanity of a comedian. As soon as you see one start worrying about how cool he is or about how many stadiums he can fill, he stops being funny.

The best script in the world doesn't work perfectly when you actually act it out. That's a law. That's a given. So you have to play with everything. And the more fun you have with it, the better the finished product.

I'd much rather eat exactly what I want, and then burn it off, than diet.

To be fair to David Brent, he wants to be famous for doing something, for being a musician, but he's just not good enough.

The only thing that really depresses me is animal cruelty.

I really just want to make Karl Pilkington the new messiah.

All of my friends are oddities.

Oh, let's face it: I hate everything in others.

I love UFC, vigilante films, and any acts of merciless heroism.

I don't do one-liners, because you don't learn anything about that comedian.

Making people laugh is easy for me. I'm quite proud of that. But I'm prouder of silencing an audience for a minute because they're thinking about something.

Luckily, even when people are shouting lies, the truth is undamaged. Science doesn't matter what you believe.

I'm influenced by those '40s, '50s, and '60s films: things like 'The Apartment' - I was a big fan of Billy Wilder.

I like grown-up comedy, where it's about character and attitude and life as opposed to obvious gross-out and jokes.

Even I can't talk about myself for an hour.

I don't know what Trump has to do to lose his supporters. It's like a religion. He's a school bully.

I wanted to be clever, but being funny came first. That's how you know someone is clever. They don't come out and tell you pi to 13 places - they tell you a joke.

I think I'm pretty self-aware.

I was never ambitious. I was never ambitious at school.

I lift weights. Then I put them down again.

I was very protective of my privacy. I didn't want people to write bad things about me that weren't true, because that's just not fair. Fifty percent of everything written about me is wrong.

I didn't like noisy cinemas when I wasn't famous.

I've avoided doing a network comedy, because I wouldn't get my own way. Even though it would get more viewers, it wouldn't be mine.

I stand by 'I'm not going to do 'The Office' again.' That would be weird: all the same people sitting at the same desks at a paper merchant's in Slough.

I think comedies should be short. I don't want to be self-indulgent; I don't want a two-hour comedy.

I like flying to New York from London. It's like a day off for me. No phone or e-mails. Food, wine, iPod, movies, snoozing.

Even on the stage, I've played a bit of a persona, and the persona I played was a much brasher, more arrogant, less aware, less educated version of me.