Ken Livingstone Quotes

I am a very frank person and that's how I hope to remain. What you see is what you get.

There's something about Brooklyn that reminds me of Toronto. I think because it's so community-minded.

I grew up in New York where there is such a different variety of people.

I grew up in Queens and New Jersey. I started doing children's theater when I was seven to get out of school because I didn't fit in.

The biggest difference between L.A. and Edmonton was that instead of people looking at me I was looking at them.

I personally would rather raise my child in New York. It seems like it would be easier to make sure she or he gets a whole bunch of experience and understanding of the world. But, people in general think it's easier to raise a kid when you don't have so much stuff in your face.

I grew up in Miami, which is a very 'cool' city, but I was a science nerd.

You can take the boy out of Philly but not the Philly out of the boy. It shapes my world view. It was a great place to grow up.

Every day I walk down the street or hop on the subway, I am reminded that I am a citizen of a very big, incredibly diverse world.

Urban living is an intersection of business and personal life.

When I first arrived (in New York), it seemed to me the most terrifying city in the world... all those big buildings. I remember walking on Broadway, looking up at this huge, mountainous place-and being so lonely. But things started to clear up when I met a few people on the street whom I'd met before-all of a sudden there got to be a certain familiarity about the place, and the terror kind of evaporated. There was a lot of playing going on, and the New Yorkers, of course, were a completely different crowd from what I'd known.

I can't be arsed with game players. I'm more 'I like you, do you like me? Let's go and do something about it.' I'm a very straightforward person like that.

Cities force us to interact with strangers and with the strange. They pry the mind open. And that is why they are the idea that has unleashed so many of our new ideas.

Instead of of being so metaphorical with the rhyme, I was encouraged to go straight at it and hit it dead on and not waste time trying to cover things.

And if you think I won't say bulls**t to the President, I say move on, cause I'll say what's on my mind.

Tommy [ Lee Jones] doesn't suffer fools easily. I think everybody knows that, but I have great respect for someone that's very direct and very honest. I don't have thin skin so I'm okay with that.

People in New York just seem a lot more open than I thought they would be.

She was as forthright and simple as the winds that blew over Tara and the yellow river that wound around it.

Early morning does not mince words.

How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!

He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells it boldly and has done is both bolder and milder than he who nibbles in a low voice and never ceases nibbling.

New York City is filled with the same kind of people I left New Jersey to get away from.

If I don't like someone, I'll let that person know. I'm not very diplomatic. I understand that.

Being that frank and being that open, there's more praise than there is negativity. It's just the negativity gets printed because you're straight and f - ing rude. It's not rude, it's just getting straight to the point.

All right, I am often brash, rude and brutally direct. Someday I'm going to die and I don't have time to toe-dance around the periphery of hatred.