Phil Collins

Deep inside us we're not that different at all.

I can't play anywhere near like I used to, and I was a hot drummer. It doesn't bother me, because frankly, if you get to that point where you can't hold a drumstick properly, there are many other things in life which are far more important, like cutting a loaf of bread or a piece of cheese.

I've bought pretty much every book ever written about the Alamo, and I talk to my friends that I've made over the past 15, 20 years. It's just a constant learning and fascinating thing for me.

The day Tarzan opened in London, I sat in a hotel room and discussed the project in detail.

I know it shouldn't make a difference, but crossing the dateline, we weren't sure what day it was - it was very strange. Now, I seem to cope with it better.

In Genesis we saw ourselves as song-writers. After Peter Gabriel left I was the first to say: 'It's OK - we can just do instrumentals.'

To be honest, producing records interests me less at the moment and I really don't want to get involved in album projects that are going to take up a lot of time.

Often there's a BA crew, because half the time we stay at the same hotels, especially in Australia. I can remember spending quite a lot of time with crews around the pool there. They always make themselves known to us.

The world is in your hands, now use it.

I've got one of four known Davy Crocket rifles. It's fantastic just to know it's one of the rifles that he actually used. His cousin had it.

I'm not a singer who plays a bit of drums. I'm a drummer that sings a bit.

When we're touring America or Europe, we use our own plane and a great advantage of that is it cuts out an awful lot of time checking in. You literally drive up to the plane, get on and then drive off at the other end.

Each thing leapfrogs. I do a Genesis project - like now, we're just finishing off an album - and then by the time the album is doing its thing, I could do nothing or I could do a film.

If Miles Davis hadn't died it would have been interesting to do an album with him, but there wasn't much else that would have got me into the studio... although Herbie Hancock has just been in touch about doing something and that would be an interesting combination.

It's not often that an English drummer gets an Oscar. So I'm very, very proud of that.

The binding of reason and intuition is the fundamental crisis of the era we call humanity. Transcedence of duality is the key.

I never stopped thinking about the Alamo from that day to this. I'm a huge collector of memorabilia. I've got Davy Crockett's bullet pouch. I've got Colonel Travis's belt.

I've spent the last year and a half going through a very public separation, hiding in hotel lobbies.

Another time, we had three days off in Australia, so we went out of our way to fly to Ayres Rock.

I don't really belong to that world and I don't think anyone's going to miss me. I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely.

It's actually come as quite a shock to learn just how many people don't like me.

It's always been easy with Mark, he's a rock fan and we speak the same language. He's a big Beatles fan too. We worked a lot via CLI calls, though only meeting up once every couple of months.

I'm just trying to do things that are interesting for me.

I grew up in the day when the Beatles sold 1 million singles in a week. And all you've got to do now is sell about 10,000 singles and you're in the charts.

Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours.

To see a lot of the smaller labels disappear or get gobbled up by the bigger labels, that's a shame. It was a bit of a shock at first to see the demise of the record stores.

Many of the articles printed over the last few months have ended up painting a picture of me that is more than a little distorted.

I started drumming around the same time I came across this part of American history. But there seemed to be a way forward playing drums. There didn't seem to be a way forward being fascinated by a piece of history.

And I would like to marry and have more children. I would like to try and do it right.

I'll have the music, and then I'll just turn the microphone on, press Play and Record and sing. And whatever comes out ends up being the melody.

My only saving grace is that I actually collect things that nobody else is interested in.

In 1977 we played America and Europe three times, and Japan - my marriage suffered as a result. My then wife took the kids to Canada to be near her parents.

We stayed in some pretty shabby places in Europe.

I'm usually going to make a record, finish a record, start a record or start a tour or between tours.

You know, a song is like a kid. You bring it up. And sometimes something you thought was going to be fantastic, by the time it's finished, is a bit of a disappointment.

You know, I've released some great records and I've released some dogs. But frankly, the fun is in creating the thing.

In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.

No seriously... when there's families, you tend to go back to your room after the gig rather than go for a drink with the other guys. But there's always someone who's got something going, like the tour manager.

I do that in whatever language of the country I'm in, because the audience appreciate it.

I don't really listen to music.

As soon as you start making a record, things start getting lined up: the promotion, possibly even a tour.

I just don't think of myself as a star. This is what I do for a living; I'm fortunate that I make ends meet.

I'm writing new songs for a Broadway version of Tarzan, which is very interesting. I think what I learned from the Brother Bear score side of things, I've brought into the new Tarzan songs. Thinking outside just guitar, bass, drums and keyboards.

Many people think of me as a perfectionist, someone who polishes and shines each song and performance. I've always been bothered by that assumption.

I'm not trying necessarily to become a movie star; that wouldn't be bad but that's not the aim. I'm just trying to do interesting things and go into areas where I've not been before.

Yes, I am aware that I have become a caricature. I've thought about this. Conceptually, what I'd like to do is the equivalent of writing myself out of the script.

I can't remember much about the early flights, except that it was ages before we got into First Class.

'Urban Renewal' was sweet because I've been - unfairly, I would say - plonked in the middle of the road because of a handful of songs. It came at a good time for me, because you do take a bit of a browbeating and, as you get older, you become better at accepting it and realizing why it happens.

Wait for it, wait for it! Anticipation is half the fun, So I've been told...

God is a spa-bath of water and we are all individual bubbles.

I joined Genesis when I was 19. I've earned the right to actually do nothing. I don't want to be a shadow of what I was, so I've kind of just quite willingly stood back.

And, you know, I never wanted to be a singer.

Testimony is contingent on experience, that's why we're all free spirits.

On the day of the show, I sit down with someone that speaks very good English and someone who speaks the local language very well and work out what I'm going to say.

I'm sorry that it was all so successful. I honestly didn't mean it to happen like that. It's hardly surprising that people grew to hate me.

In learning you will teach, in teaching you will learn.

I am stopping so I can be a full-time father to my two young sons on a daily basis.

I usually hang around the room listening to a bit of last night's show. If there's one available, I go to the steam room every day for my voice. I spend half an hour there and then I eat, because I can't eat later than four o'clock. Then I go for a soundcheck. That's my day.

When I go on Japanese Airlines, I really love it because I like Japanese food.