Quotes from Ben Miller

I used to go badger-watching as a boy, and it's brilliant fun - they're incredibly active animals, and the cubs are very funny to watch.

Acting and writing are the things I like doing. I don't like presenting that much.

I work out in the Caribbean for half the year, playing a detective who's really into science. Anybody who knows me will tell you that's a dream come true. But it's tough for my family. We only get to see each other every two and a half to three weeks.

Ricky Gervais has jokes about people with disabilities, but do I think that's a healthy thing? Yes, I really do, because he's chosen his targets very carefully, and he's thought about what he's doing.

I'm writing a science book - a sort of compendium of all the ways I've found of explaining things to my artsy friends over the years.

I go back to L.A. as often as I can, and even if I'm there on business, I always add on a few extra days for pleasure.

One of the saddest things I've ever done is download 'I'm A Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus and play along with it with my headphones on. Oh, God. If you were to walk in and see me do that, you would really worry for me.

Comedy is my proper job. It's what I should be doing, and when I do other bits like my science series, I miss it.

My success at living a moral life is pretty terrible, but I still aspire to do it! I identify with the Johnny Cash thing that trying to live a good life and be a good person are not necessarily the same thing!

Actually I don't mind the gym when I get there, but I hate the psychological battle I have to go through to get there.

I get frustrated with films that entertain me but ultimately dodge a moral question about how you should try and live.

There's something wonderful about that sort of Poirot, Agatha Christie-style investigation: cross-questioning all the witnesses and checking their stories, looking for means, motive, and opportunity.

I want to get across that science is something that we all have ownership of and we can all take an interest in. We don't all have to understand complex theories, but we should have a working knowledge, like knowing your way round the engine of your car.

I'd rather sink with a bad theory than swim with muddy pragmatism.

I'm really spectacularly thick in all areas of my life except comedy and science. I'm crap at everything else.

On 'Death In Paradise,' I had a CGI pet lizard and had to react to nothing, which was hideously embarrassing.

Things like 'The Office,' and arguably shows like 'The Only Way Is Essex,' are comedies, just using real people in real situations.

You meet every different kind of possible person from different ethnic and cultural background, and after you while, you realise it's all just people, isn't it?

This is a shameful thing to say, but I've never really got that 'grown-up' mind-set. I have to buy forks? Why?

I've been going bald since I was about 17. I'm still hanging on to my hair for dear life, but I do sometimes wonder - should I get a wig?

I took my son to an exhibition about inventing things, and he was so inspired he started collecting toilet rolls and empty bottles for his own 'inventions.'

You can reveal yourself on stage in a way that you can't on TV. If you drop a character on TV, it's death. Each character has to be ruthlessly, faultlessly played. But live, you can hint at what's going on behind. You can let the audience in a bit and go off the script.

I've always loved science, but I was never going to make much of a contribution. I'm better off having science as a hobby.

I'm very lucky, I had a very amicable separation and very amicable divorce, but it was still horrendous.