I feel I have had a very interesting life, but I am rather hoping there is still more to come. I still haven’t captained the England cricket team, or sung at Carnegie Hall!

Actually, Sydney is my second favourite city on earth, I love Sydney, but this is the greatest.

Well I think after leaving prison, and having written three diaries about life in prison, it became a sort of a new challenge to write another novel, to write a new novel.

I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.

I think when you’ve lost an election by 179, there’s going to be a period of time after eighteen years in government when you can’t do anything right, and people just kick you for the sake of it, will never admit they voted Conservative.

I feel I have had a very interesting life, but I am rather hoping there is still more to come. I still haven’t captained the England cricket team, or sung at Carnegie Hall!

I’m passionate again about writing. This is important to me; it’s got to be the comeback book.

Exclusive will not be published in book format.

I learnt a lot about myself, I learnt a lot about other people and the problems they have. If I was lucky enough to live to a hundred, how I will feel about two per cent of my life being that way, I don’t know.

I’ve loved art for more than 30 years.

We all make mistakes but one has to move on.

I think my attitude to human beings has changed since leaving prison.

We go on a lot in this country about offences being caused by drugs. The truth is just as many offences are caused by drink. And that should be taken into account.

But I certainly made mistakes, for which I regret, I think most human beings in their lifetime make mistakes, mine ended up in two years prison – two very remarkable years from which I learnt a lot.

Whenever you analyse anyone who has had any success and they’re in the headlines, you will find they are human and make mistakes. I’m certainly that and I’ve made a lot of mistakes.

I’m not taking any interest in politics. I’m not involved in politics in any way. My life is in writing now.

At the end of my trial, I was rather hoping the judge would send me to Australia for the rest of my life.

I am currently doing about 30 charity auctions a year.

I’ve been doing nineteen hours a day on London, nothing else, I mean this has been my whole life, and writing has been put on one side, and if I’m privileged enough to be the Mayor of this city, then I will not write again.

I was allowed to ring the bell for five minutes until everyone was in assembly. It was the beginning of power.

When I was three, I wanted to be four. When I was four, I wanted to be prime minister.

Sixty per cent of people entering prison today are illiterate.

I spent my first three weeks there on a wing with 21 murderers. I met some very evil people there but also some men who’d had no upbringing, no chance in life.

Well I certainly have learned and I hope I’m moving on and certainly two years of prison was a terrible punishment.

I do greatly admire Australian artists.

But the thing I felt most strongly about, and put at the end of one of the prison diaries, was education.

And I did wonder – because it’s now three years ago since I left prison – whether there would come a time when I would forget it, or it would be in the past as anything else might be – no, it’s there every day of my life.

I’m not involved in politics any more and they’re quite right.