I don't think of myself as a comedian but as an artist a scientist and chemist who just happens to be funny. I started doing stand-up to add another level to my game. I feel that I'm a young rookie with a veteran's skill.

It's funny because when you're younger you're in a rush to be 18 or 21 or whatever. But then you hit 30. And now the days go by like hours. You think 40 man this could be the halfway point. It could be the three-quarters point you know? Who knows?

Europe is scooters. Europe is five young people on one bench sharing a chocolate bar. Their idea of entertainment and fun is so much different than ours which is exactly why a movie about them would be funny.

It's funny when bands or younger musicians ask me: 'So what does it take to make it?' Well first explain to me what you mean by 'making it': Do you want to be a rock star or do you want music to be your livelihood?

Cheryl Cole and Katy Perry are two of the hottest girls in the world - and so normal and funny with it. If I was a few years older they are the kind of girls I'd like to date. I want a younger version of Cheryl and Katy - a mixture of the two would be hot.

But based on my friendship with Evie as young mothers I started going on freedom rides in 1966.

A growing number of young women who have the freedom to decide have decided that career can wait and the delicious early years of their children's lives can't.

I was the youngest child and got a lot more freedom than my brother and sister. I used to wander doing my own thing under the radar but I didn't get in bad bad trouble.

I think that we could be more careful about what we're saying to young women in terms of their expectations. It's unrealistic to expect people to always be in designer clothes. Girls growing up deserve more freedom in how they look and how they feel about how they look.

When I was younger I was listening to a lot of Armenian music you know revolutionary music about freedom and protest. In the 70s I was listening to soul and the Bee Gees and ABBA and funk.

I've never let producers tell me what to do. Even when I was making television I always did what I wanted to do and if I couldn't I didn't do it. It was a freedom that these days young directors starting out don't have.

There's a freedom to being young that is harder to come by as time goes on.

I don't think that artists of any kind would or could sacrifice their artistic freedom by being more responsible with their influence on people especially young people.

Take young researchers put them together in virtual seclusion give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness.

There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division rob you of your freedom and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation.

I was interested by the idea that artists working in a totalitarian dictatorship or tsarist autocracy are secretly and slightly shamefully envied by artists who work in freedom. They have the gratification of intense interest: the authorities want to put them in jail while there are younger readers for whom what they write is pure oxygen.

Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962 he was an angry relatively young man. He founded the ANC's military wing. When he was released he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge.

How large and varied is the educational bill of fare set before every young gentleman in Great Britain and to judge by the mental stamina it affords him in most cases what a waste of good food it is!

We must oppose programs that would take food from the mouths of younger generations to buy prescription drugs for old people and we must do it... for the children.

When I was younger I was fat. I was never conscious of it and was content with who I was because I was so loved. My mother never told me to lose weight and my father doted on me but my agent told me. I tried but I loved Indian food too much.

In my travels I also noticed that kids in Thailand like spicy food and kids in India love curry. I'm hoping to introduce my son Hudson to lots of veggies and spices when he's young. I say that before he's started on solid foods so it could be easier in theory than practice!

Well it's very easy for me to gain weight but even though I tried not eating for a week when I was really young I couldn't do it any longer because I liked my food too much.

I don't think there's going to be a day when I don't think about food or my body but I'm living with it and I wish I could tell young girls to find their safe place and stay with it.

The main thing is that it's nice to see these young people - 9 to 14 years old - take the opportunity to get more involved in their health and fitness. We need more kids to be more active.