Bryan Adams

I always knew I'd be in music in some sort of capacity. I didn't know if I'd be successful at it, but I knew I'd be doing something in it. Maybe get a job in a record store. Maybe even play in a band. I never got into this to be a star.

I'm amazed every time I come back to Vancouver at how much it's changed. You go away for a month and there's three more skyscrapers.

When your world has shattered, ain't nothing else matters. It ain't over, it's only love and that's all.

Music became my focus. At 13, I was jamming with my mates. At 15, I was playing clubs.

I need to be able to rock out.

I'd been round the world a hundred times and had started to forget where I'd been. I knew I'd been there: it said it on the tour map. I could remember the name of the city but I couldn't remember what it was like - it was a massive blur.

I pack every minute I can with something to do.

I like to be able to present myself in two or three different ways because I've never really wanted to rest on my laurels and be something that people expected.

There's a saying, 'It's easy to write songs, but very difficult to write great songs.' I'm going through that right now.

I've only ever trusted my gut on everything. I don't trust my head, I don't trust my heart, I trust my gut.

I think a lot of people want to be remembered the way they were, as opposed to the way they are now.

There's not an instruction manual on how to deal with success, so you just have to rely on having great friends and a good team.

I like the idea of helping people help people.

I've always wanted to push myself and move with the tide. That's just how I am and it's worked for me.

I never had a long-term plan.

My father's a character.

I moonlight as a singer.

I only write music for myself, I don't try and appeal to anyone else.

I always just wanted to be the singer or the bass player in the band. I'd love to have a band, where I was obviously the singer, but where it wasn't me, it wasn't my name.

If your music is great, you will have fans, not because you have spent time chatting on social media.

I've never been enamoured by the idea of being a celebrity.

Trying to manage diabetes is hard because if you don't, there are consequences you'll have to deal with later in life.

Music is just such... it's not therapy, but it's a release, it's a joy, it's a pleasure. And it's a job - which is weird, because I don't think of it as a job.

I watch everybody every night, from sitting down to being on their feet at the end, and I feel a sense of reinvention, of caring, presenting these songs in their purest form.

I got in trouble with the police, and that was a rude awakening. That was it. I'd seen the bottom of the pit, and it was time to scrape myself out of it.

To be a celebrity, I couldn't think of anything more cringe-worthy.

Difficulties are opportunities to better things, they are stepping stones to greater experience. Perhaps some day you will be thankful for some temporary failure in a particular direction. When one door closes, another always opens, as a natural law it has to be, to balance.

I do 100 shows a year, but I do it in fits and starts, as opposed to going on a long run.

Social media is a giant distraction to the ultimate aim, which is honing your craft as a songwriter. There are people who are exceptional at it, however, and if you can do both things, then that's fantastic, but if you are a writer, the time is better spent on a clever lyric than a clever tweet.