The bar was very high-we had to really make sure that we got what we really wanted, that it was a real finished album. We weren't going to give up until we got that.

It's a nonstop schedule, really. I had lost myself somewhere.

When you're in a band that's so big when you're young, you kind of lose your identity a little bit. You just become part of the band. I just needed to get away from it.

It was great fun. We had gone on tour in between the sessions and reconnected with the audience and got a lot of energy back from them, a lot of positive energy.

I was burned out. I think I was just exhausted. It was a very intense five years. We didn't stop. It was constant touring, constant writing, recording.

Some people even went off to form another band, Power Station.

We're very lucky to be able to go back and reclaim something that was a very special part of all our lives.

I guess when we were up against it, we knew this album was going to be compared to all the classic early material, because it was going back to the original five.

You never know how you're going to be received, after all this time. The initial response we had was just overwhelming, particularly that tour of the States.

Everybody was on the same page. Nobody has really gone out there on a different musical journey. When we got back together again, we all wanted to do the same kind of music.

I lived a normal life for a number of years. I had kids. I lived up on a farm in Gloucestershire in rural England, and just kind of got back to reality again.

It's amazing to see places like Madison Square Garden on the schedule again.

Nick and Simon had come to a natural end of their working relationship with Warren, which obviously opened the door for a reunion of the original five.

As Andy says, being in this band in the early 1980s made you feel like you were part of a pizza. We were always one of the band, one of Duran Duran, or one of the Taylors.

I like Target. I like the ones in the Midwest, personally. We don't really have those in England yet.

Sometimes the problem is not the people in the band, but the people around the band.

The bar was very high-we had to really make sure that we got what we really wanted, that it was a real finished album. We weren't going to give up until we got that.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger took six months to record and finish.

I slowly started to drift back into music again. I finally got the call from John... about getting the band back together again. It was so out of the blue. I almost thought that the moment had passed.

We still seem to trigger that intensity in people, which was quite incredible.

At some of the venues, the audience was so loud we could hardly hear what was happening on stage, which kind of threw us back to 1983, when we had very similar reactions on a much bigger scale.

I was raised in Chicago and I guess that was one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters of all colors. That was the Detroit of the gangster world. The car industry was thugs.

Viola Davis is a perfect example of somebody who's so much better than the parts she has the opportunity to play.

My truest passion is writing, so I continue to do that on my own while seeing what all the buzz is about being in front of the camera.

In many ways, not fitting in has been a comedic asset and a comedic resource.

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.

Women tell me they won't date a guy with bad shoes. There are good-looking guys with good-looking outfits, and then really bad-looking square toe I-don't-even-want-to-mention-the-label kind of shoes. There is no reason for that. Again, invest in something that looks proper. A great pair of shoes can make your old outfit look great, too.

I have a home in Orlando. That's kind of my default 'getaway' city.

Tis not enough your counsel still be true Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.

I remember when I was in college, people told me I couldn't play in the NBA. There's always somebody saying you can't do it, and those people have to be ignored.

Women are wonderful, but they get so caught up about their body. We need to unhook from worrying so much. When I don't feel good, I look in the mirror and think I look fat and miserable. But when I feel good and whole, I'm not worried about my body because I'm living in it. It doesn't become an object.

I think sometimes I guess you see records, say you want to get there and use that as motivation. In a way, it's kind of cool if there is a possibility to rewrite history and be up there with the greats of Olympic history.

I love the Oscars. All sorts of tacky people win. And watching everyone run up and down those aisles is just adorable.

Nothing is more fleeting than external form, which withers and alters like the flowers of the field at the appearance of autumn.

Twitter can be great and very bad.

For heaven's sake, when you see the enemy attacking, you pick up the pitchfork, and you enlist everybody you see. You don't stand around arguing about who's responsible, or who's going to pay.

My writing is authentic, and whatever happens in my life is what I write about.

I think it is a combination of looks, aura, success, the energies that one gives out, the person you are and the person you feel like that makes you 'desirable.' When the outside world sees you as a man who is responsible for himself and his family, as a man who is fit and sensitive, it kind of ups your desirability.

There's no lotion or potion that will make sales faster and easier for you unless your potion is hard work.

I want people to see the action side of me. I love all of that stuff and it would be a dream to do that Lara Croft-type role.

I can remember at the age of about six being fascinated by the planets and learning all about Mars and Venus and things.

You never know who's going to become your friend. Friends are always chance meetings.

The Fela Kuti Queens - the band members and wives of the late African musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti - are my fashion icons.

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

A lot of times people look at the negative side of what they feel they can't do. I always look on the positive side of what I can do.