Quotes from Zoe Ball

Nincompoop is such a brilliantly satisfying word.

I didn't see my mum Julia for a few years - she was very young when she married my dad and had me, and when they parted I lived with my dad and my other 'mum,' his wife Diane.

To be given the Radio 1 breakfast show was huge, but I was partying so hard I barely remember it.

In a way, I got away with a lot because a lot of our partying was done behind closed doors. But I don't ever want to be that person again, who embarrasses my family with my behaviour.

I only ever wanted to be Barbra Streisand.

What I've always done in my past when life hit a rocky patch was run from trouble into the next relationship. I didn't realise it would be such a big deal. That was foolish.

Someone taught me this really lovely thing, which is when you're panicking or thinking, 'I can't do this, I can't do this,' you just say, 'Right. Hi, negative thoughts. Stop bothering me. If you just wait there, I'm going to do this job, then I'll come back and talk to you later.'

Everyone has a breaking point.

There is such a thing as too much fun.

I was one of those kids who ate everyone's school dinners. They used to call me 'Pig of The Year.'

Great gifts include warm pyjamas, bedsocks, scarves and blankets.

I was almost arrested in Camden in the 90s.

I was a really camp child! In the 70s, an age of all these amazing musical subcultures, I was sitting in my living room singing to my dad's Streisand records.

A stick of celery doesn't do it for me.

I'm such a Beeb girl, they've always been great to me. I've worked at ITV and Channel 4, but the BBC has always felt like home.

My best characteristic is that I don't take things too seriously. And my worst characteristic is the same one. There are times when my family wants me to take things seriously and I'll be mucking about. So I'm aware it's annoying for everyone else.

I have a really large family, so we have three big Christmas celebrations. This involves intense diary planning, compromising between the families - and serious food shopping.

I think in a way that's part of getting older, appreciating the simple pleasures of being in the garden.

When my brother and I were small, somebody pointed out that we looked like something out of 'The Dark Crystal.' I think it was affectionate, but I've never been an oil painting.

When you grow up as a woman, there is that confusion where you think, 'I need to be this or that to fit in.' Now, I'm very much like, 'No, this is what I am.'

On a Friday night, I switch on my log burner, stick on 'Gardeners' World' and I am so happy.

Any other illness and you have time off work, but there is a lot of stigma around mental illness. It's frightening to talk about it. The people suffering don't want sympathy.

I have a terrible fear of more talented people than me thinking I'm just a prat who does kids' TV.

I just wanted to be a performer. I was ambitious. I couldn't sing and I couldn't act. I could dance a little. So what was there left for me to do? Television presenter. That was it.