The whole culture of my background was deeply Conservative.
— Ken Livingstone
I go all around London advocating lesbian and gay rights.
I think I have gone through my entire public career never telling a lie. I have made mistakes but I never knowingly lied.
Every budget I have ever prepared has been balanced.
I refuse not to have a sense of humour.
I employed my wife for three years to sit in the attic and type up my autobiography, 700 pages, organise everywhere I go. I'm paying the normal rate of tax on the money I take out for myself.
I mean I get loads of money, all from different sources. You give it to your accountant. They manage it. But you pay corporation tax. If you're then taking it out and spending it on yourself, you have to pay more.
I can only admire people who I have never met and are dead - because you know so much about anyone who is alive.
When I was leader of the GLC, by the time I had been in control for three years, the difference in pay between the cleaner and the director general was a four-to-one ratio. I find that attractive.
The market is a brilliant system for the exchange of goods and services, but it doesn't protect the environment unless it's regulated, it doesn't train your workforce unless it's regulated, and it doesn't give you the long-term investment you want.
I grew up in Lambeth, I went to normal schools and I've grown up in a city where people say what they think.
My administration will tackle these issues in consultation with the black communities of London.
World wide capitalism kills more people everyday then Hitler did. And he was crazy.
Polling in a general election is pretty accurate, because turnout is usually high.
Psephology isn't a hate crime.
The world is run by monsters and you have to deal with them. Some of them run countries, some of them run banks, some of them run news corporations.
I think it's much more important to keep people in work than have pay rises.
If I was courting the Muslim vote, I wouldn't have put establishing the partnership ceremony at the forefront of my first term, would I? I go all around London advocating lesbian and gay rights.
I've got people handling the media. I employ at the moment two people. No-one is paying income tax on the money they use to employ people.
I don't work hard enough. If I had worked harder I might have been prime minister.
I would like to sound like James Mason. I reckon if I'd had a better voice I could have been prime minister. It is the most irritating voice in public life.
I liked it when we had ugly politicians who droned on about issues.
What do we do about climate change bearing down upon us?
There needs to be radical development in equality law to create the environment to allow women to stay in work.
I undertake that, in the exercise of my functions of that office I will have regard to any guidance with respect to ethical standards issued by the secretary of state under Section 66 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999.
Anybody who enjoys being in the House of Commons probably needs psychiatric help.
I came into politics because I wished to change things. You can't do that by lying to people; you have to educate, and persuade, and carry them with you - and it's often a long haul.
I can easily lose myself emotionally in absolute Hollywood garbage.
I have only ever borrowed money for investment. I have been sound money all my life.
I've always told the truth. I've often been wrong - but I've never knowingly lied. Not in public life. Because I don't see the need to.
Yes, there are lots of individual exceptions. But no one has ever done a study about voting intention without ascertaining that the biggest determining factor is your income and your wealth.
I'm in exactly the same position as everybody else who has a small business.
The people I really most admire are Robert Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. If you know someone, it is very hard to revere them.
I became a councillor back in 1971, so if by this stage in politics I'm making lots of big mistakes, then I shouldn't be here.
I loathe and detest all this trivialisation of politics.
All the politics of the post-war period was about the clash between the Soviet Union and America, and virtually all issues ended up being subordinated to that. Now, the question is, what is the most a socialist can achieve in a global economy?
If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it.
I Kenneth Robert Livingstone, having been elected to the office of mayor of London, declare that I take that office upon myself, and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it to the best of my judgement and ability.
