Jo Brand

Jo Brand: Anything is good if it's made of chocolate.

Jo Brand: People say you should read your criticism because it will make you a better person but it doesn't. It just makes you a sad bitter old showbiz nightmare.

Jo Brand: I've always been a bit of a Billy Connolly fan I have to say, because he is the supreme protagonist stand-up if you like. He's a perfect stand-up.

Jo Brand: I had always fancied a go at the comedy and when it started to go reasonably well and the opportunity arose for me to move into it full time, I just couldn't turn it down. I just took the risk, and I just wanted to see if it would work and thankfully it did.

Jo Brand: This is a job which forces you to have odd eating patterns. I'm too nervous to eat before I go onstage and I'll usually eat out after the performance or when I get home at midnight. Like the vast majority of people in this country I'm not an adventurous eater and I tend to fixate on the familiar areas of the supermarket.

Jo Brand: Hopefully I've matured. I certainly have different commitments now. My material is less rock 'n' roll. My material is for old ladies like me, women gently easing into HRT. My political nature hasn't changed. I haven't suddenly shifted from left wing to Tory.

Jo Brand: I called myself Sea Monster because I used to do a gig called the Tunnel Club, I don't know if you've heard of it, down in Greenwich. It was famously the worst venue to do, where comics were regularly murdered by the audience. One of the guys that used to run it – for some reason I've no idea why he used to call me the Sea Monster and I was just looking around for a name and thought that'll do.

Jo Brand (On her changing performance style): When I first started out I performed in a rather stilted monosyllabic rabbit in the headlight sort of way, and I think people thought that was a deliberate style but it was really...It was just because I was so nervous when I started out that it was the best way to deliver the lines really. To pretend it wasn't me. Over the years I attempted to make my style a bit more relaxed 'cause the initial style you couldn't watch for more than ten minutes without wanting to kill me.

Jo Brand (On her training for the 25th annual London Marathon): I am going to be running 26 miles in a day and I am not averaging more than four miles a day. I don't know. Let's face it, I am not a professional runner. I am crap at exercise, I am overweight. I am not going to be on Paula Radcliffe's shoulder. I am just going to try to get around. If I have to stagger the last 25 miles, well, that is what I will have to do.

Jo Brand (On her first stand up comedy gig): It was appalling, it was dreadful. I went on at a benefit at midnight and I was very drunk and some bloke at the back started shouting 'F- off you fat cow'. Immediately I got on the stage. He then just chanted it over and over again until I got off - so that was my first one. But the one good thing about it was that I was so drunk I didn't care.

Jo Brand: Yes I'd love to live in Kent but it would involve a lot of commuting. It's actually very hard when you're settled in one place to completely uproot yourself and go. Because I had such a brilliant upbringing in Kent it wouldn't worry me at all to move - it would all be down to how practical it was really. I'm a real Kentish maid you know.