Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Every time I see the rails of my photo shoots, it's like Dr. Seuss, or as if they've skinned Muppets.

Throughout a lot of my 20s, my sexual allure and power was one of the most important things about me, my currency.

If you go into the mainstream with a female perspective that seems to resonate with a lot of people, you have a political agenda imposed on you: you are told that you are a feminist.

I really, really wanted to write about just female relationships with other females and things.

I'm obsessed with audiences and obsessed with the journey that an audience goes on.

I'd been waiting to turn thirty my whole life. For some reason, when I was eleven, I was like, 'I know thirty's going to be good. Get through those twenties!'

If you hear somebody say something absolutely horrendous about their own life, in quite a flippant, offbeat kind of way, when you meet people clearly trying to be strong and brave, the ones who are really good at it are the ones who break my heart the most.

Women know what they're doing all the time, and they're pretending that they don't.

It will always be relevant and always be inspiring to see somebody turning themselves into a warrior.

When an audience is laughing with a character, they make themselves so vulnerable, and they open up. They expose their heart the moment they're laughing, because they're relaxed and they're disarmed.

I'd go so far as to say I was bullied into writing, but sometimes you need that.

The element of surprise is the most important thing and what keeps me interested in writing. I can feel it if I've written that predictable or boring line, and I will carry that around with me all day.

I remember being a teenager and saying, 'Oh, I want to be an actress when I grow up.' And people saying, 'You need to be a good liar - are you a good liar?'

I change my mind every five minutes. I'm very brutal with my own process. I throw everything away very quickly, and then I have to go out and rummage through the rubbish in the middle of the night to try to find a bit I'd written a week ago.

I don't think you can be a good actor and want to please, because so much about performing and acting is surprising people.

The main relationship in the whole series was the one between the camera and Fleabag. I had to convince myself that whoever was watching on the other side of the camera was instantly complicit with Fleabag and instantly a friend of hers.

The #MeToo and Time's Up movements have been a roar on behalf of women, and the voices are genuinely empowered now. I really feel that.

Sausages are just funny. I don't know why. I can't explain it.

There's something very polite about the British accents. It's sort of sanitizing.

I don't think the challenge is asking an audience to like a character; it's inviting them to try and understand them... then making that journey entertaining and worth their while. It's a classic trick, but it's human, and it allows characters to have more depth.