If we'd had another carefree 70's, I'd have been dead. It was a little too carefree, you know? I don't know how carefree they were for me, I think I was worried then, I can't remember what about.

I started recording because I was always complaining about the records that I was getting of my songs. At least if I did them and messed them up, I wouldn't have anyone else to blame.

Learn about the world, the way it works, any kind of science and anthropology, it's really an interesting place we live in. Evolution is a really fantastic idea, even more than the idea of God I think.

I like the idea of taking a true classic written by a true genius and destroying it essentially! I like the idea of bringing it down to earth a bit - and even a bit lower than that.

If we'd had another carefree 70's, I'd have been dead. It was a little too carefree, you know? I don't know how carefree they were for me, I think I was worried then, I can't remember what about.

I once had dinner with Madonna and I wasn't nervous but within about a minute I found myself talking about underwear.

I am not overlooking any mail. I'm looking at all of it. I even wrote back to the Viagra people.

Stay away from drugs. They're not worth it. I've tried, but there's none of them that's worth it.

I think the tax cut is ridiculous but so am I.

'Rednecks' always made me nervous to play, but I'm glad I wrote it and I continue to play it. It's just that the language is so rough.

But I don't want to sing everything out of the side of my mouth, I want people to understand what I mean.

But if you're doing something, show up everyday, and something good might happen - it's not going to happen if you don't show up.

I always thought my best album was 'Trouble in Paradise.' I was the happiest with that one.

I don't remember ever having writer's block. If I sit in there for four hours, I'll usually have something.

I like Public Enemy a great deal.

I like science - geography, meteorology, cosmology.

I like the performing. And interviews, even. And the stuff that's not sitting in a room by yourself with empty paper. But I never loved writing, to tell you the truth.

I've always had a lot of respect from the people I respected.

I've worked with a band, and it's nice to have someone to travel around with, but I didn't like it as well on stage.

I've written a song for Prince. I never showed it to Prince, but just to see if I could do it. At the time, when I sort of knew him, he was recording a song a day. I wondered if I could do that. So I wrote it.

It's funny; people get so doctrinaire about music. It should be the last thing you don't have an open mind about.

It's very hard to get rich and famous at a young age and handle it well.

Most of my songs are about insensitivity of some kind.

Mostly, I don't write overtly personal stuff.

My music has a high irritation factor. I've always tried to say something. Eccentric lyrics about eccentric people. Often it was a joke. But I would plead guilty on the grounds that I prefer eccentricity to the bland.

Thank God for the potholes on memory lane.

What I'm most pleased about is that there's no particular decline. The songs I wrote 40 years ago are no worse and no better - there's a consistency.

If wed had another carefree 70s Id have been dead. It was a little too carefree you know I dont know how carefree they were for me I think I was worried then I cant remember what about.

He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

Spirituality - prayer - is a big part of my life.

A win for one is a win for all - and I'm not just saying that because Dumas did.

As human beings, what makes us able to empathize with people is a connection that is not necessarily understood mentally.

I still have my Levi's jacket that I bought on the Portobello Road when I was 14, and it's like part of me, you know, it's got oils in it, and it's my comfort, security blanket or something.

I have a penchant for playing God's clowns. Actually, I played Nijinsky once, and he used to call himself God's clown.

I love love. I'm, like, obsessed with it.

It's harder to play drums than guitar, physically. I'm always kind of on the edge. I guess that's how I play everything: on the edge of my ability.

You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.

I'd hate it if everyone in the world liked me, my music and what I wore. It'd make it boring, and I wouldn't have anything to work towards. It's not to everyone's taste, but I can only be me.

I could always imagine more interesting places to be than where I was. And more interesting people than me being there. Eventually, this led to making up stories and writing things down.

I would probably have been very content as a scholar to have carried on organising exhibitions and writing books and teaching.

I am always nervous when I'm auditioning for a part I really want.

I nearly died of double bronchial pneumonia at the age of five.

My stepfather met my mother when I was seven years old, and he was a guitar player. So he caught me messing with his guitar, his electric guitar, and he tried to show me some chords, but my hands were too small.

Comedians are innately programmed to pick up oddities like mispronounced words, upside-down books on a shelf, and generally undetectable mistakes in everyday life.

No state is free from militarism, which is inherent in the very concept of the sovereign state. There are merely differences of degree in the militarism of states.

Free nations with different histories, economies and a vast amount of stubborn pride will never achieve complete agreement, even when they desire the same objectives.

You are the only one who can dream your dreams.

I see my face in the mirror and go, 'I'm a Halloween costume? That's what they think of me?'

If youre comfortable with who you are it shows in your walk.