Quotes from Julian Barratt

The acting life can be quite scary, really.

I've been a horror fan pretty much in the sense that my sense of horror and my sense of humor were both equally kindled by films as a kid.

Sometimes, you write things that sound really great when you're at home but don't work when you shine the light of an audience on them. Great writing and live writing are two separate things.

Pain - that is what life is about, isn't it? Suffering with moments of reprieve.

We should send a load of bad celebrities to colonise Mars. They would have to mate in space, and then their children would be sent back to Earth in 50 years' time.

Comedians are not well people. Well people are not drawn to creating.

In comedy terms, usually when the weather's bad, it goes much better. When it's sunny, people don't come to see comedy gigs because they're all really happy and don't need cheering up.

My dad listened to a load of jazz - Mahavishnu, Weather Report, Herbie Hancock.

We used to have to convince people we were funny, and it didn't always work.

With the 'Boosh,' we were trying to do this strange, weird thing that had its own language and visual style, and it wasn't really what the powers that be wanted.

With something that's not based just in comedy, you can be a bit weirder in a slightly realistic way.

The profession is rife with fear about your age, about your validly, longevity, appearance. It's vanity, and it's hard to sort of avoid all those things; they come at you as an actor.

I've got a lot of friends with whom I discuss jazz.

My life is divided up into before I had kids and after.

We did have that, in the background of the character and the show, 'Mindhorn,' set on the Isle of Man, that every episode they would have to mention the temperate microclimate of the Isle of Man.

Films do have suspense and tensions and scares and jumps, and I like to write things that have both in them, comedy and horror, but sometimes they are hard to balance.

I think with performing, initially I was terrified on stage, absolutely terrified. And I did it again and again and again, and I learned sort of how it works, and then I was able to do it.

Writing can make you feel a bit psychotic. You create a world, and you're sitting inside it all day long, talking to people who are not really there.

Most comedians are borderline psychotic. It's what makes their work interesting.

You don't need a high concept to make a great film, of course. 'Withnail & I' is not - it's probably not much on paper, but it's one of the funniest films ever made.

The secret of comedy is don't grow up. That's why some comedians are a nightmare, because they never grow up.

'Galaxy Quest' is a fantastic film.

Sometimes I do that quite a lot, go back and forth a lot between ideas. Try things out.

I ran off stage at my first gig. Halfway through it, I forgot my lines and didn't know what to do, so I just ran out of the building down towards a lake. I was going to throw myself in, but the compere came out and said, 'No, it's going well, come back and finish the gig!'