Quotes from Lenny Henry

It's nice to get home and do normal stuff. Put the rubbish out, do the school run - it means you stay grounded. I knew a horn player who was so used to being on the road that he became institutionalised; he could never adjust to being at home. I'm really glad I didn't let it get that far.

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

Huge props to Brian Michael Bendis for sort of shaking up the Marvel universe and just saying 'there need to be people of colour in these comics otherwise it's not representing the true world the way it should be.'

I love the BBC but I just want this thing of BAME inclusion in the demographic of the people who make the decisions about what we do and how we do it, to change.

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.

It was never on the cards for me to go to uni, going to a sink secondary modern in the Midlands. The threat was that if you didn't get your exams, you would end up in a factory. Which I did, but actually that was a great experience, and I would have even got an engineering diploma if I had stuck my three years out.

My family is from Jamaica, it's why I don't do 'Who Do You Think You Are' because within two or three generations is slavery, and I'd be there two minutes in crying, they're all slaves! So I don't want to do 'Who Do You Think You Are.' It's in my family.

My mum came to Britain from Clarendon, in the south of Jamaica, to make a better life for her family.

I think I'm trying to - I'm trying to make a career, rather than just doing jobs for the sake of doing jobs.

As a performer, you get your 'thing.' You're the deadpan comedian, or the mad one, or the sexy one, and then you rely on that and mine that seam for years and years and you kind of forget who you were. There's this mask that you hold up between you and the audience that means they never get to see who you really are.

I'm a big fan of the blues, and a lot of those guys travelled all over America on Greyhound buses, listening to music and ending up in some juke joint, late at night, rootless and with no responsibilities - one of those gamblers who risk it all on seven is romantic and exciting.

I'm not sure I like the idea of polar bears under a palm tree.

I never let myself forget that I'm really lucky in my work to be able to discover so many people and places, and to have the opportunity to bring some of their stories to new audiences.

There are comics who choose to be controversial, and people have to make a judgment call. You either watch it or you don't. It's possible to be funny about anything, it just depends on how you approach it and if you've got good self-editing skills.

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.

When my older and younger brother came to live in this country, they were attacked on numerous occasions and had to defend themselves. This was a country where it was hard to assimilate, it was difficult because a lot of people didn't want you here.

Depending on who's directing you, sometime it's heightened or more naturalistic, but generally you're trying to represent something truthful.

If you can't see, you can't be. If we don't see BAME people on the TV, or in film, we become invisible.

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.

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.

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.

It was really bizarre. I was learning how to be a black guy from a white guy pretending to be a black man.

Britain is multicultural and it will become more multicultural, not less, and you have to think about who is on your team.

I want diversity to be at the very heart of the BBC and not delivered by some other party with increased government interference, bureaucracy and unforeseen consequences.