Sara Pascoe

“Normal' is a concept formed by averages but it changes with education and tolerance.”

“Worse than useless, I worry e-petitions are detrimental, with their sense of catharsis and mini-activism. Channelling away agitation, giving us the opportunity to show all our Facebook frien...”

“There was a girl I was best friends with at college; I always used to kiss the boys she liked. I'd like to apologise to her.”

“Sometimes people give to charity because they have been persuaded to believe in a cause, sometimes just to get rid of you and sometimes because they are befuddled and confused.”

“For women, style codes are not merely about being smart or presentable, they are a platform for judgment.”

“The pancreas releases insulin to make you ready for fight or flight when you're scared. So if you don't fight or flight - if you stay onstage, telling jokes - then your body stores more fat...”

“I don't feel like a very feminine woman sometimes. I feel manly. When I was in my twenties I would say I was a masculine girl and now I realise the whole idea of femaleness is a construct. I...”

“I wore a padded bra every single day and night from the age of 14 until I was 31. Giving up padding was my New Year's resolution. I had known for ages that wearing a stuffed bra was a form o...”

“I did an open air gig in Regent's Park and that's an incredible venue because the sun sort of sets while you're on stage and you can see the audience so brightly.”

“Comedy, surprisingly for a form that intends to bring joy and joviality, is always upsetting people. Jokes rely on broad strokes, stereotypes, caricatures, exaggerations and simplifications.”

“Much of the discussion around how people look at women focuses on culture, as if the media is entirely to blame. As if, without magazines and commenting hosts, we'd all suddenly dress in pra...”

“I could barely function as an adult; I slept through alarm clocks and lost train tickets mid-journey.”

“I would have been an essayist in the 18th century. Maybe I'd have had one gag in the piece, but essentially I'd be saying something.”

“Utilitarianism is a philosophy from the olden days exploring the idea that whatever is best for the majority is the fairest.”

“When I was a child, I had an intense fear of going to prison. I wasn't on the run or anything - my crimes were small and they were all against fashion. But I had nightmares about accidentall...”

“A show that I loved as a kid was 'Maid Marian And Her Merry Men'. It was a really strong female character making fun of the boys, an inversion of gender politics. But it was very funny, too....”

“Skinniness is a new fashion. It reflects an obsession with youth, a suggestion of pre-adolescence when a female's fertility can be dominated. It implies vulnerability, feebleness and fragili...”

“It's interesting that reading, like listening to podcasts, is a lone pursuit, one where we keep our mouths shut and let someone else do the talking. Where we absorb rather than emit. By occa...”

“I honestly believe true happiness lies in lowered expectations. In opening the door to let the air in.”

“I am very short-sighted but I don't wear my glasses as they give me a headache, so if everyone could just stand closer to me that would help.”