Top 34 Quotes & Sayings by Mathew Horne

I played in goal for Notts County juniors. I liked that sense that goalkeepers were outsiders, mavericks. But I stopped when I realised I wasn't going to grow any more. I'm 5ft 7ins so I couldn't have been a professional.

I'm quite ritualistic about my preparation. I always shower before a show, even if I had one before leaving my flat.

A dressing room is both a personal space and a workspace. It changes with the flick of a switch: turn on the relay - the speaker linked to microphones in the auditorium - and you're at work; when that's off, it's your sanctuary.

I can't remember a Christmas where I didn't have a rotten cold, and I always get one about two weeks into a job. I definitely get man flu - I'm not brave at all.

Budapest was very beautiful and spending the day under a canopy of Hungarian trees, on horseback, was fantastic.

TV's so quick. You make a choice and you do it, and if the director thinks that's wrong then you make another choice and you do it, and that's it.

I always wanted to be an actor. I did drama at Manchester University and then had a stand-up comedy double act with a guy called Bruce MacKinnon.

I find it ever so archaic, chanting, but I can see why people do it. I love seeing people getting all their frustrations out for the week.

There have been a lot of strong women who have had a huge influence on my career. I'm working with Imelda Staunton at the moment and she's definitely one of those women. And I would include Kathy Burke, Alison Steadman, Kylie Minogue and Catherine Tate as well.

I go to bed at 9.30pm and listen to Radio 4.

I've always been a clothes horse, and I spend a lot of money on designers.

When I was about 24, I went to Reykjavik with Benedict Cumberbatch for a few days. We took a three-hour coach ride to a glacier and raced on snowmobiles at 60mph.

I was nine when I started getting laughs in a school comedy sketch one day, and acting became all I wanted to do. I'm sure my career choice was difficult for my parents: they would have had the usual parental neurosis about how tumultuous the business can be, with lots of actors out of work.

Elves, Eskimos and aliens are the type of girls I am attracted to. I've been going out with my current girlfriend for a year. She looks like a cross between an elf, an Eskimo and an alien, with a bowl haircut and little thin legs.

I won't leave the house without having a shower and, as much as it makes me a terrible anti-conservationist, I often have two a day.

I wanted to be a prosthetic makeup artist after watching 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'.

I would go to Hollywood if something came in that I really wanted to do.

I wore a dress as a child for six months and I wouldn't take it off. I was three. I've seen the pictures.

My upbringing was very basic working-class on the outskirts of Nottingham. My mother, Glenis, was a nursery nurse, looking after special-needs children, and my father, Brian, became the manager of a lace factory after working his way up as an apprentice.

The first time I ever met posh people was when I went to Manchester University to study drama, but I couldn't care less about people's backgrounds - it's all down to the individual.

My dad's a lifelong Notts County fan, but it didn't cross my mind to support his team, and I still feel bad about it. I'm a Tottenham fan because of a 1986 Panini sticker album.

I feel most relaxed when I am acting or writing.

I go to the gym four times a week and play football about twice a week. I'm pretty active.

I wouldn't want to be a part of something that has gone off the boil a bit and isn't as good as the last series. I have confidence enough in my own ability to go on and do something else.

Whenever I am not filming and not required to travel with work, I spend all my downtime in Scotland.

I always plan what I'm going to wear, although I hope my clothes say that I look really good and I've not thought about it! Ironing is part of the preparation, so I don't mind it.

Most dressing rooms are sterile and they feel like someone else's space. But over two weeks of previews, before the show officially opens, they transform - filling up with cards, flowers, home comforts.

No, I'm far too selfish to have a child. Also, I couldn't bear to have an ugly child. I'd have to be 100 per cent sure that the girl I had a child with was good-looking. You can never tell because you don't know what's going on while it's being fermented. You'd have to do a lot of research to check that they didn't have ugly genes.

A sketch show by its very nature is hit and miss.

If I wake up after eight hours it's right; after nine I'm groggy.

Jealousy isn't something I do. I am not a jealous person.

I see clothes as an art form, and also a statement: no matter how vociferously people protest that they don't care what they wear, they sort of have to.

My first relationship at 15 made me really, really mature because it was so destructive and intense. We were inseparable for three years and I was completely and utterly besotted. But then it all fell apart and it took me a long time to get over it.

I am not really a fan of beaches or lying by swimming pools, and as I have quite sensitive skin, the sun is my enemy.