Tim Minchin
Christopher Hitchens's autobiography, 'Hitch 22', is a poignant read and very interesting because I have a very poor knowledge of recent political history - or, for that matter, distant political history.Collection: Knowledge
Mum and Dad had high expectations of us as human beings - it wasn't just about education. It's a fantastic way to go about parenting, and I aspire to that.Collection: Parenting
I spent thousands of thousands of hours playing the piano, and by thousands of hours, I mean playing in cover bands or wedding bands or disco bands or original bands or playing cabaret for Todd McKenney.Collection: Wedding
At its essence, 'Groundhog Day' is an existential journey of an unhappy, judgmental, slightly narcissistic, misogynistic, dissatisfied, aspirational, entitled, privileged male who has to learn to be the opposite of all those things to find happiness - to learn that learning is important and that you don't get to control everything.Collection: Learning
I wake up in the morning quite excited by the notion that I get to immediately have a meal. That's the thing that gets me out of bed - just the thought of having a poached egg, or even some granola.Collection: Morning
I've been atheist since I became aware of the term, but my material is not all about religion - not by a long shot - and when I do address the topic, it is to point out where religiosity meets discrimination.Collection: Religion
If we talk about 'Groundhog Day' as a humanistic text - we only have one life, and there's no punishment or reward afterwards - then the wisdom is, just be kind because that will make you happy and the people around you happy.Collection: Wisdom
I don't think you should bring up your kids with no wallowing. Somewhere in there is an area where you make sure your kids are all right, but they can also cry. Just maybe not every morning.Collection: Morning
These days, I'm a hypocritical, philosophical vegetarian. Vegetarianism would be the right choice, but I really, really love meat.
I am not a redhead. I have never been and am still not. Well, just a little... but I was blond as a kid and then mousy brown. As I got older... it came up. I've got a lot of red in my hair, but I'm not a ginge.
You've got to teach yourself you can do your job no matter what happens.
I am a very ginger-coloured person, but I don't have orange hair.
That's the incredible thing about 'Matilda': it keeps manifesting itself in different ways.
In particular, Stewart Lee and Tony Law, people who could have been really critical, were really supportive of me, and I'll never forget that, and I want to be that person, so you have to work really hard to repress your natural jealousies and be one of those people.
My brother and I played music together, and we all liked to show off. But I wasn't a particularly musical kid. I did piano lessons and quit. I got kicked out of the choir.
The point of privilege and the notion of mansplaining is that sometimes I definitely feel like I should shut up. That's it functioning. That's the notion of privilege functioning.
In terms of comedy, I never did five-minute sets or clubs or anything. I just started doing shows. Coming from that theater background, it never crossed my mind that I should start doing five-minute sets.
I was naive. Before 'Larrikins,' I thought passion, hard work, and a skill set will mean that anything you want to do will get done. I don't think that anymore.
Fight for what is true. What is true is enough.
Trying to work out where you find meaning and sense in a meaningless world is my obsession.
Dad was known for his barbecues at weekends and bubble and squeak on Sundays. We'd all have to set the table and clear the table. We had our own seats, totally structured.
I'm the son of a surgeon and the grandson of a surgeon.
I'm not a good philanthropist yet; I'm not as good as I'd like to be... I believe very hard in luck. It's all chance; therefore, any privilege you have is chaos.
Comedy actually works best when you're living in an OK world, and you are pointing out the hypocrisy in apathy.
In a global world, nationalism is a fantasy, and it's poison. It used to be appropriate, but it's not anymore, and we haven't learned that lesson yet.
Comedy is often a short career because you get to a point where you are no longer a small thing punching up at targets; you are the big thing, and it's hard to write from that position.
I played piano for cabaret stars and stuff and then eventually moved from my hometown of Perth in Western Australia to Melbourne, and somewhere in there, I decided to book myself a room and do a cabaret show of my own material.
I see myself as an utterly unchanged Perth dude who likes sport as much as I like music and who just likes my family.
Every song in 'Groundhog Day' works to forward the story in a chronological, narrative sense, to illuminate the state of mind of the person singing it and comment on the world.
The thing I love about my career is the variety and that people can't predict what I'm going to do next.
I had terrible ear problems and asthma and allergies. I spent quite a bit of time in hospital up to the age of eight so was not - am still not - extraordinarily intelligent.
It's about the audience - if they laugh and clap, you feed off that, and if they don't, you doubt everything you've ever done.
I lived at home while attending the University of Western Australia in Perth, while doing a gap year and - partly - while attending the Academy of Performing Arts on the other side of town.
My most visceral childhood memory is getting home from hockey. Much of our family time revolved around hockey, and it rains a lot in Perth, and we'd get home tired and wet in our tracksuits, and the smell I'd hold in my nose is of mother's vegetable soup.
I was a late bloomer, but I realised that people really liked it when I played blues scales and, with the piano, I had that insatiable need to prove myself.
I'm as strict as my parents - I have high expectations, too. I'd never ask the kids to do something outside their capabilities, but I'll encourage them not to be lazy and to try hard.
I've stopped asking for criticism, even from friends, because I don't think anyone knows my little world of mega-thorough critical thinking/musical comic rambling better than I do.
I want to be here for my family. I want to make stuff in Australia. I want to take what I've learned and contribute it to the industry. I think there's a moral imperative to do so for people like me.
There's a lot of great, talented, passionate musical theatre practitioners and directors here. But it's very hard to suddenly start building great musicals in a town like Sydney where there hasn't been any great musicals built.
I have written a lot of musical theatre over my life - two Olivier Award-winning musicals - and I still don't think I'm ready to be the boss in the room.
I just see myself as someone who has a bit of a way with words, basically.
I have these rhyme-based ideas because I love Julia Donaldson. 'The Snail and the Whale' is one of the most beautiful poems, and I feel like I could do that.
I can make rhymes. My style of writing is kind of childlike anyway.
I think it's great that these little various skills I have seem to add up to something, because I'm not the greatest pianist or the greatest vocalist or the greatest actor.
Acting's just always been one of those things I've enjoyed.
I've always been aware that probably writing songs - stupid songs or, at least, theatrical songs - is, I dunno, I certainly don't think about that, about my persona on stage. In fact, I work really hard not to address it too much in my head.
My granddad had a 1,500-acre hobby farm that he had built up from scratch in Western Australia, so my siblings and I spent our childhoods going there a lot.
I like stories, and I really like words. So I like stories that rely on dialogue.
If you don't have anything different to say, don't say it at all. That's my rule.
I want to write musicals for my whole life. I always did.