"I'm not a great shopper but I do buy a lot of books. I'm the publishers' friend - I buy a hundred books a year and read four."

"I see myself as a comic but the acting helps sell tickets for gigs."

"The one I remember is going into London, as it was for us in Essex, on New Year's Eve in 1981. There were four of us and we'd had a few lagers on the way. One of my mates threw up in the Tube and then stood up and fell over in it. We thought it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen."

"I like pubs too, but it's hard for me to go and get proper bladdered in the way I used to. I don't want to moan about being recognised but I do get a bit of grief sometimes."

"Black women don't have the same body image problems as white women. They are proud of their bodies."

"But our society does not grant nontraditional forms of intelligence equal recognition, no matter how much it would help us get along or truly enrich our lives."

"It demonstrates to his simple mind in the most positive manner that we have no prejudice against him on account of his race, and that while he behaves himself he will be treated the same as a white man."

"When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity."