Prison widens your circle of friends. In my stand-up, I can now talk about things that no one else has the right to touch.

I'm busy and that's the way I like it - when I have too much downtime I get into trouble.

We were the only black family in an estate with 1,000 white families. Liverpool being quite racist in the Sixties, it was a bit grim growing up.

Critics called me 'egregious' - I had to look that one up - and 'creepy', but now I don't read them, I weigh them.

My life has been, I suppose, the most incredible series of highs and lows.

Once journalists have been rifling through your dustbins, you do try and keep them at arms' length.

It's evolve or die, really, you have to evolve, you have to move on otherwise it just becomes stagnant.

The inventory process and stepping back in your life can sometimes be a very dark process. But it also can be extremely funny and surprising.

I have a stepladder. It's a very nice stepladder but it's sad that I never knew my real ladder.

I was thinking - if we get a cell with a trouser press, we can make cheese toasties.

Who needs drugs when you have Takeshi's Castle?

Love is cure, love is power, love is magicof changes, love is the mirror of divine beauty

Every beginner possesses a great potential to be an expert in his or her chosen field.

Can you see through the night, woman, that you stare so upon it? Man, what sparks do your eyes follow in the smouldering darkness?

The temptation to entertain instead of selling is contagious.

I think poetry can lead to policy, and I can hear the laughter when I say that.

I got sunburnt which is obviously a drag for me because in theory the sun is supposed to kill me.

The people I work with are like family. I don't mean this in a nice way.

Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.

To have failed is to have striven, to have striven is to have grown.

Refugee problems can only be solved in the region (of origin) - maybe with a little help from the UN. Governments must provide something for their countries. They need to deliver.