Short of being prime minister there isn't a better job in British politics than running London.
— Ken Livingstone
You lose power in Britain and you are just Joe Public again.
I have met the people who run the world, and I am not in awe of them.
I think democracy's undermined when those who own newspapers fill them with trivia rather than real issues.
I was a weedy kid, not like one of those working-class men who can accommodate not being academically clever by physical strength and prowess.
I'm an emotional person; I do occasionally shed a tear.
I do the gardening.
I swim three times a week.
The civil service are risk averse.
I am a socialist, a believer in rational thought and the rule of law.
I do explicitly see Jewish people as a people - not either a religion or an ethnicity but a people.
I'm never going to take the view that I should say whatever I need to say in order to achieve something. Because that implies a level of dishonesty.
I actually think the civil service, who are the malignancy at the heart of public life, have consciously prevented, talked ministers out of, made it difficult regulatory-wise, to allow more pressure on alternative energy sources to grow.
Most people wouldn't want to marry a politician.
The truth is, no one pays more tax than they have to.
Most politicians aren't allowed to express themselves any more.
Well, I get on with people who believe in something.
I'm more interested in politicians who deal with human rights in their own country rather than lecture the rest of the world.
I have no interest in managing my financial affairs.
Give me the whole world to run and then I'll be happy. If tomorrow I was told I had to sort out the whole world's problems I'd sleep like a baby.
I have opened newspapers and read incredible lies.
I never came into life with any favours or privileges.
I grew up in a house with very few books.
I've always been a workaholic. I reckon, on average, I've had less than one day a year off in my working career.
I spent the 1960s and 1970s seeking myself - the working-class tradition of self-education.
The best way to demonstrate the values of a western democracy is you put Osama bin Laden on trial; you challenge what he says.
I could not cherish London and not value Jewish London. The contribution of Jews to London is immense - politically, economically, culturally, intellectually, philanthropically, artistically.
I am not against Israel, I am against Zionists.
The press keep asking me, 'What was your biggest mistake?' But if I had made a big mistake, they'd all be writing about it, wouldn't they?
Thatcher was prepared to destroy the world rather than give in on something she believed in.
This life is messy.
If women had never been given the right to vote, then Labour would have won every election after the war.
There isn't much about my life that's been particularly conventional.
Well, I mean, I'm very much a pragmatic person.
My main income is from speaking.
Global warming could be solved by shifting three to four per cent of global GDP to pay for it.
I would like all newspapers to become workers' co-operatives.
If you are running a city you must focus on day-to-day problems.
Press TV is one of the few TV channels anywhere in the West that fairly presents the Palestinian case.
Politics is not a healthy lifestyle.
My political beliefs are my moral, quasi-religious framework.
Everyone changes all the time.
Working with the Jewish community is essential to me and what I stand for.
Jewish voters are not one homogenous block.
My only regret is the media's obsession with the past.
Most kids don't get to go their parents' wedding.
When I'm sifting the compost seed or pruning, I argue over issues in my head; I talk to myself.
Most people are not shocked that I am occasionally rude to journalists. They are probably amazed I don't punch one in the face.
I can't understand why anyone would want to live the life of a politician if you can't say pretty much what you think. You are not in it for the money: there's unremitting pressure on your life, you give up so much of your privacy. It can only be because of the things you want to do and the things you want to say.
I've never declined to do an interview.
