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.
Every budget I have ever prepared has been balanced.
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.
When I'm sifting the compost seed or pruning, I argue over issues in my head; I talk to myself.
If women had never been given the right to vote, then Labour would have won every election after the war.
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.
Well, I mean, I'm very much a pragmatic person.
My administration will tackle these issues in consultation with the black communities of London.
Most kids don't get to go their parents' wedding.
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 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.
I go all around London advocating lesbian and gay rights.
World wide capitalism kills more people everyday then Hitler did. And he was crazy.
Working with the Jewish community is essential to me and what I stand for.
I spent the 1960s and 1970s seeking myself - the working-class tradition of self-education.
I'm in exactly the same position as everybody else who has a small business. I mean I get loads of money, all from different sources. You give it to your accountant. They manage it.
This life is messy.
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 have met the people who run the world, and I am not in awe of them.
The whole culture of my background was deeply Conservative.
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.
Polling in a general election is pretty accurate, because turnout is usually high.
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'm in exactly the same position as everybody else who has a small business.
Most people wouldn't want to marry a politician.
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.
I could not cherish London and not value Jewish London. The contribution of Jews to London is immense - politically, economically, culturally, intellectually, philanthropically, artistically.
There isn't much about my life that's been particularly conventional.
I grew up in a house with very few books.
Everyone changes all the time.
I think it's much more important to keep people in work than have pay rises.
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 am not against Israel, I am against Zionists.
I never came into life with any favours or privileges.
I loathe and detest all this trivialisation of politics.
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.
If you are running a city you must focus on day-to-day problems.
I am a socialist, a believer in rational thought and the rule of law.
I've always been a workaholic. I reckon, on average, I've had less than one day a year off in my working career.
The civil service are risk averse.
I can easily lose myself emotionally in absolute Hollywood garbage.
I'm more interested in politicians who deal with human rights in their own country rather than lecture the rest of the world.
The truth is, no one pays more tax than they have to.
My only regret is the media's obsession with the past.
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 do explicitly see Jewish people as a people - not either a religion or an ethnicity but a people.
