SANDI TOKSVIG

You have to stand for the things that you believe in. You have to stay strong inside.

The problem with money issued by any government is that its only value is what those in charge decree.

I haven't the energy to despise anyone.

I certainly wouldn't want to be a Mini Me of any of the people whose footsteps I've followed in.

I'm political in the sense that there's much to be done, but I'm apolitical in the sense that I don't think there's a party that represents anything I believe in.

Like most women, my weight goes up and down.

I wish I was fitter.

My dad died of a massive heart attack when he was 59, as he didn't look after himself.

I cannot lie on the beach or by a swimming pool. I think I'm too Nordic to like a lot of relentless sun.

'QI' is exactly what the best TV ought to be - you learn something, but you are also crying with laughter.

I've had a surprising number of near-death experiences: I was nearly blown up by a landmine in Sudan; I was stranded on the Zambezi river at night; I was bucked off a rodeo horse in Arizona and had to be airlifted to hospital; and, worst of all, I once ate a Pot Noodle.

You can't complain or have a say if you don't vote.

I was never interested in how I look.

Being attracted to my own sex was as much part of who I was as being short or blonde or drawn to the library, but I was made to grow up feeling 'other.' Most books, films - even advertisements - didn't reflect how I felt, and I often watched the world from the outside.

I went to a physiotherapist, and she said something to me no one has ever said: 'Sandi, you have plantar fasciitis, because you're fat.' I left and sat in my car shaking. She'd told me the truth, which no one else had. It was painful, but I needed to hear it.

I've met Theresa May, and I think she's a good person. I'm not someone who goes, 'Ooooh, boooo, the Tories,' or 'Ooooh, boo' anyone, actually. You sit down and have a sensible conversation, and she is really, really capable of having a sensible conversation.

Us Danes have amazing pastries, but we're not a fat nation.

There are panel shows that struggle to get women on, and that's because the women feel marginalised and stupid and in the edit are often seen just laughing at the boys and not saying anything at all even though I know for a fact in the recording they were clever. I'm not shy at speaking up, but even I, on those shows, am silenced.

Is raising boys different from raising girls? Oh my goodness, yes! It's a different species, and I love them for that.

I don't care if you're from the right or left of politics - there are core objectives we can all agree on: equal pay, equal representation on the media, equal representation at board level, politics, an end to domestic violence.

I was born gay, OK? I've always known. I don't think my family were the least bit surprised.

There was a really long period of time when, if the newspapers ever referred to me, even if I was talking about, I don't know, cake making, they would put 'lesbian Sandi Toksvig.'

I am passionate about higher education and am hugely impressed by Portsmouth's mission to encourage students from every walk of life to excel.

My wife and I drove across America following the Oregon Trail, which the pioneers once passed along.

I dislike hatred, offence, unkindness.