Billy Eckstine's Quotes

I only socialise with people that I have a lot in common with.

I prefer highs and lows to an even keel. Moderation is never something I've been good at.

I still can't set up the ironing-board. A complete Luddite.

I think as time goes by you'll get female comics who are weirder - you'll get a female Mighty Boosh.

I think I might actually die of showing off. It'll be on my headstone - 'Cause of Death: Showing Off.'

I think my siblings sometimes have to defend me within their social circles - they are both barristers.

I was trained as an actress. But I wasn't a very convincing actress, so I started doing punk poetry and then fell into doing stand-up.

I'm a schizophrenic mix of wannabe glamourpuss and absolute slob, and my style is very much magistrate-meets-barmaid.

I'm very bad at having heroes. I don't rate anyone particularly highly because I'm so snide and competitive and not very nice.

I'm very jealous of my daughter's education. She's been inspired by her teachers, and nobody inspired me as a teenager.

I've got a hat face. My mother always said I've got a hat face.

I've got this horrible feeling that I'm one of those people who'll always have to flog their guts out to get anywhere.

I've never been prudish.

The comedy I like the best is comedy I can't do, stuff that doesn't touch my arena.

Women are more emotional, and it's natural to talk about it.

After graduating from flares and platforms in the early 1970s, I started drama school wearing a pair of khaki dungarees with one of my Dad's Army shirts, accessorised by a cat's basket doubling as a handbag. Very Lady Gaga.

As a five-year-old in Berlin in 1965, I didn't know that funny women existed. It wasn't until I got back to England that I realised women could be funny.

I can't watch other people doing comedy. As soon as somebody starts being funny I have to turn off because it upsets me. I get comedy indigestion. I just hate anybody else being funny. That's my job.

I have a fear of poverty in old age. I have this vision of myself living in a skip and eating cat food. It's because I'm freelance, and I've never had a proper job. I don't have a pension, and my savings are dwindling. I always thought someone would just come along and look after me.

I'm the least spiritual person in the world. I can't even abide a smelly candle. I know it's meant to make me relax, and that immediately makes my hackles rise.

I've just got crap hair. Although I inherited a lot of stuff from my dad, including giant knees, I didn't get his good, thick hair. I got my mother's thin, wispy, non-event hair instead.

If I do go to the beach there have to be certain rules: it can't be a pebbly beach, there has to be some shade and there has to be a beach bar. I don't want to go off the beaten track.

People often ask why comedy is harder for women, and the reason is because a tampon will sometimes fall out when you're on stage. Blokes don't have that worry.

The only way to go on holiday is with your expectations at ground level. Convince yourself before you go that the weather's going to be dreadful and there will be nylon sheets. You'll then be pleasantly surprised.

Well, I'm not good with sliminess. I hate the thought of creatures that have slime on them or creatures that leave a slimy trail. At home, the sight of a slug can bring up my breakfast.

What has happened to the good old-fashioned travel agent? I want to go to a really posh travel agent and have them organise everything for me. I don't want to do things on the Internet.

I wouldn't say I was grumpy. It's more pathological - I have seismic tantrums. I get red in the face and cry at least three times a week, and I have to lie down and have a nap afterwards.

Anyone who has dead straight hair wants curls.

As a rule, wearing a bigger pair of jeans looks better than squishing yourself into a pair of jeans that used to fit before you gave up smoking.

Family is the one thing that is definitely not disposable.

I am best viewed from a distance.

I am best viewed from a distance... and at night.

My older sister is bossy, my brother is a stirrer and me - well, I am perfect!

Well, I really don't like heights. I don't get on the top deck of a double-decker because that's a bit high for me. I always feel that I'm going to hurl myself off, so heights are a problem.

My daughter has always had a strong sense of her own identity. From the day she was born her father and I were in love with and in awe of her and still are.

There should be more booing in shops and restaurants and places like that when when the service is bad. If you've had a poor breakfast in a hotel, you should put your knife and fork down and boo.

A good fart joke makes me bawl with laughter, so will somebody farting. And the word 'poo.' You can't beat a good poo joke.

For me, being a woman suits what I want to talk about and what my audience wants to hear. Maybe I'm a dying breed.

I admire the Elsie Tanners and Barbara Windsors of the world: people who have crawled back from the abyss. I'm quite camp in that respect.

I am not sure gender ever won't be an issue in comedy, because I think that women do have different priorities in some respects.

I am very short-sighted, and if I don't like a situation I take my glasses off.

I can eat a man, but I'm not sure of the fiber content.

I can't sing.

I can't stand folk who are all snobby about reality TV.

I can't tan naturally.

I don't do marriage. I think it's incredibly naff. And I don't like vulgar displays of ostentation.

I don't think I'm successful.

I have a very solo career. I only write with people that I really adore.

I have always had a need for attention but didn't plan to be a comic.

I know the new comedy god is surrealism, but it doesn't touch my heart.

I love fashion, but I don't come from a background of loving clothes, and I remember feeling badly dressed from a young age.