Viv had this kind of stage presence where you couldn't ignore it. He walked onstage, he looked dangerous. You just didn't know what he was going to do.

Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along.

I wasn't aware that Track Records were interested in the Bonzos.

It was just us lampooning our own peer group, saying, well hey, where did this stuff come from? And where does British guys get to be so good at it suddenly?

Ladies and gentleman, I've suffered for my music, now it's your turn.

I mean in recent years, I think you've only got to sell thirty or forty thousand to get a #1.

But I remember we sold nearly 18,000 records in one day.

But mostly, I wrote songs and Viv wrote songs.

But I mean, again, Zappa's far more musical than the Bonzos ever were.

In many ways, Viv and I were the only ones who were really songwriters.

In fact, Moon came on tour with us for a bit just before a big festival in Brighton, I think.

We weren't by any means like the Grateful Dead or something, who could just roll on and on and on.

So we used to look for funny songs, and learn them and play them. And we used to play them in pubs.

But we used to go to flea markets and things, and look for old 78 records that had silly song titles.

Eric Clapton always wanted to come out onstage with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder.

But Dennis was a really solid musician, and we really needed somebody who could play bass like him.

I think most musicians do like to have a laugh.

I see my role in the Bonzos as being the straight man, in many ways.

I suppose we all loved those kind of sci-fi movies where terrible things came out of swamps and came to Mars. And there's usually some poor girl. All the guys are trying to desperately handle levers and saying, go to something or other.

When we did Top of the Pops for the third time, we decided to do it as a television program here called Come Dancing, which is not as rude as it sounds.

I mean Gorilla was really our first sort of goes at songwriting.

We weren't going to play the show-biz game, and be obsequious.

I suppose Roger had the license to do anything that fitted the venue.

As I said, when we needed to move over to rock'n'roll, Sam and Vernon couldn't quite make the shift. So that's when Larry took over on drums, and we needed a bass player.

We then took a shortened version of what we'd been doing in the pubs, with the best gags and things like that, out to cabaret clubs and things in the north of England for six weeks. And we became a big success.

And Roger was crazy with his robots and everything.

Larry only ever wrote one song, and he wrote that with Tony Kaye, I think it was, from Yes.

Viv had this kind of stage presence where you couldn't ignore it. He walked onstage, he looked dangerous. You just didn't know what he was going to do.

I used to help Viv with the chords and melodies sometimes.

Each and every master, regardless of the era or the place, heard the call and attained harmony with heaven and earth. There are many paths leading to the top of Mount Fuji, but there is only one summit - love.

Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.

I was a fighter and very determined. There was no way I was going to back out without winning.

You know, on the road, I never miss a meal. I eat five, six, seven times a day, depending on when I wake up and when I got to sleep. I never miss a training day. I always get my four days out of my seven.

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

Over-eating is the addiction choice of carers, and that's why it's come to be regarded as the lowest-ranking of all the addictions.

It doesn't matter if they're in front of the camera or behind the camera. I know women who are producers who are surviving on nothing but juice and almonds.

I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart.

I lend people money, but I'd never lend something that would jeopardise a friendship if I didn't get it back.

Israel now has a reputation around the world of being not just a place to develop products and technology but to develop ideas.

Afghanistan is a country in need. Afghanistan needs to protect itself in the region; Afghanistan needs to secure itself within the country. Afghanistan needs to develop its forces, and Afghanistan needs to provide stability to the people.

I think I'm probably a monster-of-the-week guy, and that comes back down to my old favorite show, which as a kid was always 'Scooby-Doo.'

I had an agent in Salt Lake City, but acting was more like a hobby.

I don't mind playing the same character, but if it's not well done, then I'm not interested.

I'm like a middle-aged person; when my friends go on about modern bands, I don't know what they are talking about. I'm into rock n' roll, like Jimi Hendrix. Not so much because of my parents, who used to play a lot of Nina Simone and older blues, but my brother and sister.

I couldn't have imagined that I would live long enough to see Egypt emancipated from decades of repression.

I think that there's a strain in journalism that believes that anyone who surrenders him- or herself to faith and to belief necessarily checks reason and rationality at the door.

I'm the star of the show. I should have a decent haircut.

As long as I'm not living out of a suitcase, I'm happy.