Borat is based actually on a guy I met in southern Russia. I can`t remember his name. He was a doctor. The moment I met him I was totally crying. He was a hysterically funny guy, albeit totally unintentionally.

I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, `The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.` I know it`s not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it`s an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.

I think that, essentially, I`m a private person, and to reconcile that with being famous is a hard thing. So I`ve been trying to have my cake and eat it too - to have my character be famous yet still lead a normal life where I`m not trapped by fame and recognizability...I guess I`ve been greedy. Maybe it`s time to let go.

I`ve been in a bizarre situation, where a country has declared me as its number-one enemy. It`s inherently a comic situation. I mean, it`s always risky when you don`t go down the normal route. I wish I would`ve been there at the briefing that Bush got about who I am, who Borat is. It would have had to be great.