A biography for Lenny Henryhasn’t been written yet.
“The Anansi stories were in my life because they're not just 'Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby in the Briar Patch,' they're stories from Jamaica and Africa that my mum used to tell us when we were kids. So I learned about Anansi being not just a spider, but also a weird god-like figure since I was little.”
“I worked at the BBC for 35 years before I had a meeting with anyone who looks like me. The only people like me were cleaning the corridors, and that is not right.”
“From 13, I knew my family was different to anybody else's. You weren't allowed to talk back at your parents or look at them funny. You weren't allowed to leave food on your plate, you weren't allowed to keep the change when you went shopping. There were a lot of rules growing up; but I don't see anything wrong with that.”
“I think it's possible for anybody to write what they want to write - superheroes, historical, period drama, 'Game Of Thrones' - it's just how you chuck yourself into it that counts. And do your research.”
“I think it is important that the public record of anyone being considered for key public appointments is scrutinised. That is the role of the media and key public institutions.”
“No, people don't heckle me. I think it's because there's this big, black guy on stage and it's slightly daunting.”
“I do like a well-written sketch with a bunch of jokes in it, and I like stand-up with good jokes in it it.”
“Wouldn't it be great, if there was a one-stop shop where funny people could take their ideas and have them made?”
“When I was eight my mum said, 'You must integrate otherwise you won't fit it in. You must talk like de Dudley people dem.' Suddenly this thing of having a Jamaican attitude got knocked out of us.”
“I fell asleep during some ballet once.”
“I wish I'd seen Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Rainbow in 1977.”
“When you're working class and you feel like you're a bit of a toerag, you think Shakespeare's not for you, you know?”
“My family recycles paper and bottles, but I reckon a proper wormery for the garden compost would be the way to go.”
“Britain is multicultural and it will become more multicultural, not less, and you have to think about who is on your team.”
“Black people didn't start coming to see me until 1982. I'd just started doing Delbert, and suddenly my world changed. I started doing black-centred characters that were about people I knew in the community.”
“It's not just about showbusiness - everywhere you go people are discriminated against. And if by having an organised voice against inequality and a lack of diversity we might be able to push that down - how brilliant would it be?”
“People want to be represented on television.”
“Sadness has a horrible way of lingering in your subconscious.”
“If you work all the time, you don't have many life experiences to feed back into your work.”
“I listen to lots of blues records and some of them are funny. BB King's 'How Blue Can You Get' is hilarious.”