I think a lot of cynicism has dropped away from my shoulders since I stopped drinking.

I love the magic of the studio.

I had a breakthrough, I think my life just became calmer, I gave up drinking. My priorities changed as I had a young daughter. The group didn't want me to record for the Think Tank album... so I took it as a sign to leave.

You know Manchester is always a bit of a hard place for people coming from London, just with all the history. Manchester has this immensely huge and healthy history musically.

A singer for me is more like someone who is standing alone with a microphone like Scott Walker, rather than someone who is bashing a plank and is spitting all over a microphone.

I sing, but I don't think of myself as a singer.

I'm not going to pretend that I am the best thing in their life and they have to be totally loyal.

It was quite nice meeting up because we went through a lot together and we haven't really seen each much other to communicate one to one for quite a long time.

But those audiences in Spain, they were just so stoned. I don't like playing to audiences like that because they just don't do anything. I'm up here with my band and we're working really hard and they are just stoned.

It's a bit loose and the people in my group have got other groups. They don't have to have a total allegiance to me. I think that's really a bit weird and showing some weird insecurity.

I've always looked at shoes as being immensely beautiful things.

It's mostly Mars Bars and peanuts and cheese and you go to the fridge and there's Red Bull and Beer. It's not like people are holding me down and pouring beer in my face.

Playing and singing at the same time is pretty cool, but sometimes it's difficult to know when you can just really let go a bit because you've got to get back to bloody microphone and sing some stuff.

When Blur first started and we were playing Manchester the Hacienda was the place to go. That was where a lot of exciting stuff was happening and London was pretty dead.

Being a singer now I have to get all fussy... I must have my ginger and lemon and all that.

I suppose my little Martin acoustic guitar is quickly becoming a prize possession. It's a lovely guitar. I bought it at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2001 before I had cleaned up.

There's a focus that hasn't been there for ages and ages and some American bands are sounding quite English like they did in the late 70s and early 80s.

The other guys drink, but they don't drink anywhere near what I used to. And I think they're slightly respectful of the fact that I'm off it, so it's not a problem.

There were some extremely good teachers there that were great artists really in their own right. It was actually very hard to concentrate on getting down to going any work being an art student especially when it's a flighty thing at best.

I think now, more than anytime I can remember, bands are sounding pretty similar whether they're English or American, from Manchester or London... or Leeds or Welsh or Irish.

Like, Mission Of Burma to me always sounded almost like they were part of the British Arty New Wave. I kind of like that. I like not being able to tell the difference.

I think a lot of cynicism has dropped away from my shoulders since I stopped drinking.

With my daughter, who at the time was one, my domestic life needed to take more precedent and really with my own self I needed to develop quite a bit more. So that put Blur down the list of priorities quite a lot by the time I came to thinking about it.

I'm still amazed by the process of recording.

But live shows are cool. I just got back into the idea of enjoying it live.

Manchester has it's own pride and London has it's sort of pride and sometimes we can be a bit mean to each other, but I think if we dig the music we can get on really well.

I think of someone like Mariah Carey as a singer.

It's the clothes that influence the music I'm going to play.

I liked Germany; I'm not into Berlin, it's too huge and empty and imposing, but Munich was good.

I don't think of myself as a singer really.

I'm a bit of lunatic with shoes and jackets and jeans. It's just how I am.

There are a lot of people who can do it on the guitar and sing at the same time, but I think what is harder is bass players that can play the bass and sing.

It's the faster bands that made me want to play guitar, bands like The Jam.

I'm still trying to discover my position on my own artwork and hopefully at this exhibition someone will come and tell me. I'm open to listening to criticism.

Most of America don't even listen to music probably. They just go raccoon hunting or something.

Cynicism is full of naive disappointments.

Cynicism is intellectual treason.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

I am most proud of my integrity and least proud of my cynicism.

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's active disengagement.

Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.

If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.

I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.

Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.

Irony differentiates. Cynicism never does.

I have no cynicism at all.

I read some of my stories recently and thought, 'How in the hell did I get away with that?' I had some really raw cynicism in some of them.

My level of cynicism about the reasons that took us to war against Iraq remain just as well-developed as they were before I went.

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?