I feel like when you call me inspirational, it takes away from the success that I've actually had. Would you say that to any other comic that just ripped the mic for an hour?
I would say a lot of people think I'm too serious at times, but actually I feel like I'm the opposite away from the camera and everything. I feel like I have a good time, but you rarely see pictures of me in the garage with a smile on my face, even though I am happy. I guess I just don't always show it.
My writing goal is just this desperation to get as much done as possible. It's never a comfortable, relaxed thing. Especially because I know so much of the story that I want to tell and I feel so far away from the end. Actually feels a hundred years away, and every hour I'm not working is another hour away from finishing.
I'm actually sort of shocked that I was able to get a medal in 2014 and really have any of the success I had before because as soon as I came out, it was like a whole new world for me, and I felt so free, so confident, that it's actually shocking that I was able to compete any other way.
The first noticeable thing to me about falling in love for the first time is how physical it is. But I've had it a couple times, so it's not just the first time, which is actually encouraging. It's just you feel like you're being ripped in half and it hurts in the best way. And it's like this dropping pole that also floats and it burns and it's cold. It's like just all every contradictory feeling at once imploding.
For me, it's different every year. Some years, it takes me a while to feel comfortable again, to feel like I'm ready to go. Other years, it clicks real fast. Sometimes, it just takes one game or one swing to feel like, 'OK, I'm back.'
My only challenge was to tell my truth, man... figure out what I had to say. These days, it's not enough to boost that roomful of strangers. The young comic spends all their time trying to sound different from the million other jokesters grabbing for the mic.
It would be ridiculous for me to say I am unlucky, but, like any other family and any other girl, I've had my ups and downs.
Each individual has their own opinions about whether war is an answer to any problems. Personally I think it's a waste of time, but I think more importantly, that it's is an issue that we haven't had any say in. That's why I feel so strongly about it. I don't feel like we've really been given any choice in this matter. I think if you had a referendum tomorrow, Tony Blair would have no choice but to call off the war.
Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing you know that you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.
I realised those things my ego needed - fame and success - were going to make me terribly unhappy. So I wrenched myself away from that. I had to. I had to walk away from America and say goodbye to the biggest part of my career because I knew, otherwise, my demons would get the better of me.
The Catcher in the Rye had such a deep impact on me, because it felt like it was just Holden and me. I didn't feel like any other person had read that book. It felt like my secret. Writing that I identify with feels like it's just me and the writer. So I hope that whoever is reading what I do feels like that.
At the height of rush hour, people on the London underground actually say "excuse me." Imagine what would happen if you tried an insane stunt like that on the New York City subway. The other passengers would take it as a sign of weakness, and there'd be a fight over who got to keep your ears as a trophy.
I hate it when people call me a 'national treasure.' It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador.
Yes, I hate it when people call me a 'national treasure'. It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador.
Had I not come out with an inspirational CD, you perhaps would have never known that I feel like I feel, that all songs, all the music I've ever done is a gift from God.
I grew up with park jams. That's how I knew about rap... The local MCs would grab the mic and start rapping. I just used to be so in awe and fascinated and like, 'Wow, this is amazing!' But I would never, ever touch the mic. Heck no.