Quotes from Sandi Toksvig

I am always slightly mystified by the whole 'Snow White' story. What are the chances of coming across that many diminutive men living in one house in the woods?

Language is ever on the move, and most days, I check out the 'Urban Dictionary' where anyone can invent a new and useful word or phrase.

English is full of Scandinavian words. Margate, Ramsgate, Billingsgate, any town with a 'gate' on it takes their suffix from the Danish word 'gade' which simply means 'street.'

Sigh. Here's another fine woman that historians can't believe was real. Of course she was real. Not only is there a splendid Chinese poem called "The Ballad of Mulan", there is also n excellent cartoon by Disney.

You must stand up for everyone's right to be who they are— otherwise you may find one day that it is you who is singled out, who is seen as different, and then there will be no one to defend you." After

I used to look at Jinks and marvel at her smooth complexion, but over the years I have come to realise that she has been spared wrinkles by virtue of never having succumbed to heavy thought.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), British politician

Apparently advertisers don't like clever or insightful television programmes because such fare encourages people to discuss what they've seen during the ad breaks. This would explain much about the current state of broadcasting.

Mary was a famous fairground attraction but she doesn't really count as she rather famously turned out to be a monkey.

Margrie himself was made the first 'Mr London', a title which has the pleasing sense of them having had a swimsuit round in the competition. Margrie believed that he was a perfect example of a new evolutionary stage in human development, which he called Peckham Man. It never ceases to amaze me how many women struggle with self-belief while the vast majority of men have no trouble with it at all. He must have been insufferable.

The killing of time is the worst of murders. Daniel Defoe

For years the physicist Donna Strickland was not deemed notable enough for an entry. She finally got her place in Wikipedia on the day she won the Nobel Prize. Surely that cannot be what it takes to be remembered? No man is held to such a standard.

Not long before Harvey Weinstein's fall from grace I sat next to him while being interviewed for Chris Evans's radio show. He was physically gross yet inexplicably smug.

In October 2015 Emily Temple-Wood, one of the site's long-standing editors, told the Atlantic magazine that she had identified almost 4400 female scientists who met Wikipedia's inclusion standards but did not have a page. For years the physicist Donna Strickland was not deemed notable enough for an entry. She finally got her place in Wikipedia on the day she won the Nobel Prize. Surely that cannot be what it takes to be remembered? No man is held to such a standard.

I read somewhere that there are no accidents, just ideas trying to find us.

Mrs Strange insisted that the entire class slant their lined paper to the left at a 45-degree angle so that our script lurched away from the centre as if keen to escape. They say your handwriting says a lot about you. I think mine says a lot about Mrs Strange.

What kind of books do you want?' the librarian enquired. 'Local history,' I said. She shook her head and muttered darkly, 'They'll be scattered.' I wasn't sure what that meant. It's the sort of thing people say at crematoriums, not libraries. She kept staring at me, so I left without any books.

Ever trying to get us to behave, he banned all alcohol from the green room and was exasperated one evening when, ten minutes before the show, we all had to be extracted from the pub next door.

I had failed to follow the fundamental school rule that you ought to turn up every day. The truth is I found it boring and I don't do well with that. I have learned to deal with hurt, embarrassment, pain of many sorts, but boredom in this world seems unforgivable.

Do you even know the difference between a girder and a joist?' he asks pompously. 'Ah, well, yes,' answers the Irishman in his laconic way. 'Goethe wrote Faust and Joyce wrote Ulysses.

The planet has been taken over by testosterone-fuelled madness.

One night, as he wiped ketchup from a pillowcase, I declared, 'Dear God, Alan, we're almost like an old married couple, except we don't have sex.' 'No, Sandi,' he replied, 'we're exactly like an old married couple.

Why does anyone ever decide to be an artist of any kind? It is the strangest life to endlessly put your head above the parapet and then wait to be shot down.

My Achilles heel of laughter, the things that will make me laugh even on my deathbed, lie in two rather unusual areas: yodelling and amusing ways to die. No matter how sombre an occasion I will always giggle at yodelling.