Lenny Henry

“A relationship can only work if you work at it. Marriage is the most difficult thing you will do - you've got to really love each other to enjoy the same jokes, the same odours, the same behaviours every day.”

“You don't get to be a good screenwriter unless you do 20, 30 drafts: fact.”

“I wish my dad or somebody had taught me how to fight and defend myself. Because you're very vulnerable if you can't stick up for yourself.”

“My dad never hugged me, never said he was proud of me.”

“You walk into the Beeb and it is very, very white. That is not anybody's fault. You can be in an oppressive institution and not be an oppressor.”

“That's what all of us, as writers, actors and comedians, set out to do - shine a light on new perspectives.”

“I didn't want to be a 16-year-old kid being beaten up by a bunch of people who didn't like me 'cause of the colour of my skin.”

“Life is about overcoming self-doubt. But you don't grow if you don't question yourself.”

“My upbringing gave me a lot of backbone and prepared me well for showbiz. It could throw anything at me and I could take it.”

“If I'm going to do comedy I sort of want to do my own.”

“I want people to be safe, I don't want people to die or end up in hospital because of Covid-19.”

“When I was younger, I was very thick-skinned - my skin is actually getting thinner as I get older.”

“It's about challenging yourself; wanting to do things that push you.”

“Samuel Coleridge-Taylor has opened my eyes in many ways.”

“I was always uncool. I was always from variety - big bow ties, flared trousers. Never cool.”

“I listen to a lot of Sade.”

“I got accused of misrepresenting all people of colour in Great Britain. I would get told off a lot. 'How can you do African characters when you're not African?' But I gave it a go. Maybe if there had been more of us I could have just been Lenny Henry from the Black Country with Jamaican parents.”

“It is wrong if nearly every time we hear a black or Asian actor portraying their lives they are actually speaking the words of someone who has never experienced their reality. And to effectively silence disabled people from telling their own truth on film or TV is close to criminal and will not help wider society understand their reality.”

“I got into lots of fights at school: I'd get racially abused, then lash out. One day, this kid said something and instead of putting my fists up, I said something back: people laughed, and he walked away.”

“I did a TV show called 'Lenny Henry Dot TV' a couple of years ago and I hated it. These things always happen when you don't have time to reflect. And I didn't do anything on the telly for three years.”