Quotes from Sue Perkins

When I was 18, I went to the East Coast of America, got mugged, and came straight home.

I'm a passionate person; there's a lot going on underneath my carousel of blazers: a cauldron of sensitivity and emotion.

My dad was a keen philatelist and, when he died, he left me an album he'd curated over some 40 years. He'd handpicked every item, saying each one reminded him of me. I opened it to discover the pages were full of beige stamps bearing the image of George V. Take from that what you will.

A good 'Bake Off,' for me, is just about cakes and nice people - and that's a successful show.

Googling yourself is like staring at a flame and then putting your hand in it.

As an adult, the obsessive dynamics of self-employment meant it was impossible for me to take a break. What would happen if I disappeared for a week or two? I would be forgotten. Forever. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity would, doubtless, present itself - and I would miss the chance to seize it.

I was an international krumper at one time. I can't talk about it, really, because when you've lived for krump like I have, when you get a bit older and you move away from it, it's hard.

The only time I am not talking is when I am dancing. I look like an electrocuted octopus.

I had an operation on my cornea when I was little, and remember being deeply enamoured with the team who looked after me.

You can say a lot of things about me, but I own my own opinions. They're not for sale.

You build up coming out to this horrible moment. It's so stressful, there's so much adrenaline, and there's so much primal fear - even though I know my parents to be good people - that they're going to reject you.

I wanted to set 'Heading Out' in a real world, a concept I originally struggled with, as I don't have a proper job.

To those who say: 'Why pay for a gym when the outdoors is free?' I say this. In nature, there are no medicine balls. You can lie on an outsized gourd doing sit-ups, but in reality, outsized gourds are hard to come by unless you live in a farmers' market.

I was bookish and awkward and wanted a means of expressing the millions of emotions flying around inside me. The piano seemed as good an outlet as any.

Bluster - it fortifies me against the outside world. Take away the words, and I am lost.

You're never going to persuade a meat-eater to become a vegetarian on taste grounds. They're completely different. One is a cleaner, fresher taste: it hasn't got that bass-note beefiness.

I always like to think that I'm accountable for everything I do, but I'll never understand how I did some of the things that I did.

I ended up in TV because I have no ability to do anything else. I have an agent who tells me where I have to be when.

I would have loved to have been science-minded enough to be in the caring profession - either as a doctor or nurse or vet.

Let's face it: I'm not a looker. I'm a scruff. But I have embraced my scruffiness. We're happy together.

Just when my biological clock started ticking, I found out it was going to be virtually impossible. And it was very hard.

One day I would want to be an Egyptologist, the next day an ornithologist. I was an exhausting child.

I'm known for being quite gobby, but also, I'm quite old fashioned in the sense that I like writing letters.