Top 107 Quotes & Sayings by Lenny Henry

My family recycles paper and bottles, but I reckon a proper wormery for the garden compost would be the way to go.

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

It was weird being a kid in the Midlands where outside everybody is white and speaks in a certain way but when you go home nobody speaks that way and everybody looks like you. Every day was this weird threshold crossing.

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.

Perfection isn't everything, some mistakes are pretty groovy.

I like to play characters who are flawed - the big man brought down.

With every task you think, 'What did I do wrong there? What could I do better?' That's why I've spent my life gravitating towards people who can show me how to improve.

I listen to lots of blues records and some of them are funny. BB King's 'How Blue Can You Get' is hilarious.

My parents had this massive record player in the living room, a 'blue spot grand' they called it... it used up an entire rainforest to make this thing, and it had all these records in it. Some were rock, some were reggae, but a lot was blues - Ray Charles, Chuck Berry and all that stuff.

The idea of giving your talent for free in order to save lives seemed like the most sensible thing anyone's ever suggested.

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.

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.

From 13, I knew my family was different to anybody else's. You weren't allowed to talk back at your parents or look at them funny. You weren't allowed to leave food on your plate, you weren't allowed to keep the change when you went shopping. There were a lot of rules growing up; but I don't see anything wrong with that.

I've written songs since the beginning of the 80s.

I'm a black person and when I was growing up I went to a school with no other black people and walked past signs that said 'Keep Britain White.'

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

The blues has been in my life since I was little.

I was in church every Sunday till I was 14 or 15. A van used to come and get us, whether we wanted to go or not. I saw people getting the spirit, talking in tongues, juddering, foaming at the mouth - to be honest, I was a bit frightened of it. The minute I could, I stopped going.

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.

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 wish I'd seen Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Rainbow in 1977.

That's what all of us, as writers, actors and comedians, set out to do - shine a light on new perspectives.

You walk into the Beeb and it is very, very white. That is not anybody's fault. You can be in an oppressive institution and not be an oppressor.

At school I wasn't particularly engaged. I was sort of a look-out-the-window guy.

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

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

When you've lived in a country for 50 years and you pay your tax, you have a pension and insurance, you've raised a family and sent your kids to uni. To get to an age and be told you don't belong here and you have to go back to where you come from is really saddening and infuriating.

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

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 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.

I think it's possible for anybody to write what they want to write - superheroes, historical, period drama, 'Game Of Thrones' - it's just how you chuck yourself into it that counts. And do your research.

When you're working class and you feel like you're a bit of a toerag, you think Shakespeare's not for you, you know?

Now, although I'm a mimic and I've got a reasonable ear, being a character isn't about an ear. It's about the whole person.

In our house, my mum was the funny one.

If you work all the time, you don't have many life experiences to feed back into your work.

I haven't got an exact number for my carbon footprint although if it's anywhere near my normal footprint it'll be size 13 wide.

Corden's a comedy powerhouse.

Sadness has a horrible way of lingering in your subconscious.

When I was young we had a collection for the Welsh disaster at Aberfan and we also had a school campaign for Biafra. It is a wake-up call for kids - a way of understanding that it's not all 'Blue Peter' for everyone and that maybe they can help.

I failed my 11-plus and ended up working in a factory after I left school. But then I passed my audition on 'New Faces' and I was on the telly. Suddenly, I was living in London, and sending my parents money that they could never have imagined. It was a massive thing for me; I was a 17-year-old kid who was able to support his family!

We used to live in a one-room bedsit in Dudley with an Indian family.

My upbringing gave me a lot of backbone and prepared me well for showbiz. It could throw anything at me and I could take it.

No, people don't heckle me. I think it's because there's this big, black guy on stage and it's slightly daunting.

I wish my dad or somebody had taught me how to fight and defend myself. Because you're very vulnerable if you can't stick up for yourself.

I fell asleep during some ballet once.

If I'm going to do comedy I sort of want to do my own.

Shakespeare is for everybody, not just for toffs with a cauliflower down their tights.

You don't get to be a good screenwriter unless you do 20, 30 drafts: fact.

People want to be represented on television.

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.

I am the ultimately chippy person, and I am glad I am. I have a chip on each shoulder, so I am well-balanced.

In 21st-century storytelling all bets are off: anybody can do anything. We're all storytellers.

I didn't want to be a 16-year-old kid being beaten up by a bunch of people who didn't like me 'cause of the colour of my skin.

I try to make my daughter laugh often. I try to do lots of playdates and be part of her life. It's something I've learnt, because I think I saw my father laugh three times.

Life is about overcoming self-doubt. But you don't grow if you don't question yourself.

If you don't know your history, you can't know your future.

My dad, Winston, didn't say much. He was a very reluctant man. He came home from working at the foundry every day and then he'd go to the bookies, watch cricket on TV or go to the pub. He was like a Victorian dad, really. He didn't have much to do with us kids.

I think tax breaks for diversity is a good thing. In film now, what happens is you get huge tax breaks if you can prove via your hiring practices and via casting, that the film is British, you get a tax break. Wouldn't it be great if you got a tax break because the film was properly diverse?

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.