A biography for Ken Livingstonehasn’t been written yet.
“Most politicians aren't allowed to express themselves any more.”
“I came into politics because I wished to change things. You can't do that by lying to people; you have to educate, and persuade, and carry them with you - and it's often a long haul.”
“Most people are not shocked that I am occasionally rude to journalists. They are probably amazed I don't punch one in the face.”
“If you are running a city you must focus on day-to-day problems.”
“Every budget I have ever prepared has been balanced.”
“Well, I get on with people who believe in something.”
“I spent the 1960s and 1970s seeking myself - the working-class tradition of self-education.”
“I've got people handling the media. I employ at the moment two people. No-one is paying income tax on the money they use to employ people.”
“The whole culture of my background was deeply Conservative.”
“Working with the Jewish community is essential to me and what I stand for.”
“My political beliefs are my moral, quasi-religious framework.”
“The civil service are risk averse.”
“I grew up in a house with very few books.”
“I don't work hard enough. If I had worked harder I might have been prime minister.”
“I'm never going to take the view that I should say whatever I need to say in order to achieve something. Because that implies a level of dishonesty.”
“I do explicitly see Jewish people as a people - not either a religion or an ethnicity but a people.”
“The best way to demonstrate the values of a western democracy is you put Osama bin Laden on trial; you challenge what he says.”
“If I was courting the Muslim vote, I wouldn't have put establishing the partnership ceremony at the forefront of my first term, would I? I go all around London advocating lesbian and gay rights.”
“I swim three times a week.”
“I have met the people who run the world, and I am not in awe of them.”