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I did not want to put myself on the line, as an Australian playing Britain's greatest comic actor. The fans of Sellers are obsessive, possessive - and aggressive. I did not want to risk their anger - or my own reputation.

I don't see myself as a stand-up comic doing cynical, mean-spirited or disrespectful stuff. I'm very aware that I don't like to disrespect people too much.

If I love a comic but they have an off night, who am I to say they should have taken out this or added that? It doesn't work that way... I have no interest in hurting people's feelings.

A lot of fans that recognize me go, 'I kind of hate you,' and I'm all, 'Cool, well, you've just made this sufficiently awkward.'

I went through a phase where people would introduce me at parties as a cartoonist, and everybody felt sorry for me. 'Oh, Matt's a cartoonist.' Then people further feeling sorry for me would ask me to draw Garfield. Because I'm a cartoonist, draw Snoopy or Garfield or something.

I'm a comic writer, in some ways, and a comic person when I'm up at a podium, in order to disguise the fact that in my heart I'm disgustingly earnest.

Hey, I'm like the Wayne Gretsky of the entertainment biz - I have other people do my dirty work while I skate around and get to be a nice guy. What can I say? I'm a coward.

I'm not a phony-friendly guy and I'm usually very quiet and not a big laugher, so some people might take that for rudeness and being mean. If anyone ever got that impression, I apologize. I love all my fans and really appreciate all their support!

No matter how heinous someone's behaviour, if you make them a comic character, you can't expect people to hate them.

Comic fans are some of the toughest fans to please, and I'm one of them.