“I was obsessed with Nelson Mandela. I had big posters of him in my bed...” — David Lammy Quote

“I was obsessed with Nelson Mandela. I had big posters of him in my bedroom and he became my proxy father figure. He was in jail, so I could project all sorts of things about what he would say to me.”

“I like the state of being self-aware, it's interesting when you start to look at your own habits.”

“The New Labour doctrine that skills training was the responsibility of employers was flawed. The idea that employers should take on a bigger role ignores the reality that employers have no incentive to train staff to leave. We can hardly expect Tesco to train checkout staff to become dental nurses.”

“The bedroom tax turfed people, many of them disabled, out of their homes, while the government disseminated myths about people living it up in council houses the size of small mansions.”

“Luckily, many other people tell me how they have had a particular landscape photograph of mine in their office or bedroom for 15 years and it always speaks to them strongly whenever they see it.”

“The story about me, apocryphal or not, is that I could sing before I spoke. My parents went into bedroom one day and there I was standing in the crib singing God Bless America.”