My shows will always be inspired by hip hop culture and my upbringing within it.

I'm sure that in 1985, plutonium is available in every corner drugstore, but in 1955, it's a little hard to come by.

Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one

Trying to be funny is one of the hardest things on the planet. I think that's tough for everyone. If you're just naturally funny it's a hell of a lot easier.

Breaking up monotony is key to life and it doesn't matter whether I'm stacking shelves or writing songs, if I was doing the same thing every day I just couldn't take it.

The future's unwritten. It's what we make of it.

I don't have the desire to be the best standup in the UK but I do have the desire to be the best at everything else I do in terms of writing and acting.

With this kind of camera-phone madness we have got, moments are diluted into self-contained edited experiences.

While I was rapping I was always involved in youth work - I ran music workshops for teenagers and young offenders all the time and also ran a charity for refugee kids for a time.

I think the sensible thing would be to focus on one thing and be the best you can be at it. There is always that risk of spreading yourself too thin if you try to do too much.

I respect anyone who's honest to themselves and able to bring that into their work in an entertaining fashion.

It can only be that places left behind often become emotionally simplified - that they sound a single note of pain or pleasure, which means that they are never what they were.

When you have a definite purpose of life, the universe will reveal the path to attainment.

Humility is no substitute for a good personality.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world.

Give a guy a girlfriend and a great job, he doesn’t need therapy.

For me, the more I don't foolishly waste my life wishing for a better past the more free I am today to create, grow, and love.

Essien Udom is a Nigerian. At present he's a professor at Ibadan University.

I have nothing to declare but my genius, and this four-kilo bag of cocaine.

God it's good to be here walkin together, my friend.