I don’t like to feel like I’m in a club when I’m in my car and I turn on the radio. Anything that ceases to be a song and just sounds like house music kind of stresses me out.

‚Doo-wop‘ is a very special word for me. Because I grew up listening to my dad who, as a Fifties rock & roll head, loved doo-wop music.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

A sense of the universe, a sense of the all, the nostalgia which seizes us when confronted by nature, beauty, music – these seem to be an expectation and awareness of a Great Presence.

A record deal doesn’t make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

Man, I’m the No. 1 living and breathing rock star. I am Axl Rose; I am Jim Morrison; I am Jimi Hendrix.

My favorite record label of all time is Motown. That era of music was my favorite.

There are certain sounds that I’ve found work well in nearly any context. Their function is not so much musical as spatial: they define the edges of the territory of the music.

I never eat salad. I make sure I don’t put a lot of junk into my system, but I hate vegetables!

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

I’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean.

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

I don’t know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it.

I have a very eclectic iPod. So I’ve got my cardio people – so it’s anything from Beyonce to some Jay-Z to Janelle Monae, her song ‚Tightrope,‘ that’s a good cardio song. And then I’ve got Sting. I’ve got Mary J. Blige. I’ve got The Beatles. I’ve got Michael Jackson. I try to pick the songs that I personally love.

Fans are my favorite thing in the world. I’ve never been the type of artist who has that line drawn between their friends and their fans. The line’s always been really blurred for me. I’ll hang out with them after the show. I’ll hang out with them before the show. If I see them in the mall, I’ll stand there and talk to them for 10 minutes.

I listen to music all day every day. I can’t not listen to music. It’s kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it’s what I love, and it’s all I care about, so I’m good with it.

I just want to keep writing music.

Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that’s stripped down.

The great music for so many artists – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones – was always at the moment when they were closest to pop. It would be easy for U2 to go off and have a concept album, but I want us to stay in the pop fray.

I’ve rarely seen video screens used well in a music concert.

I don’t like perfumes that are too strong or sweet. I like a fragrance that is earthy and sensual and can be worn at any time.

I have always enjoyed watching my songs make people cry.

This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

I don’t think anyone ever plans to change line-ups, but it’s something that comes with being in bands. I was in a band once and there were always problems – members come and go – and some of the world’s biggest bands have changed line-ups loads!

I’m pretty sure I don’t have any songs that are about how much I love someone. They’re all either about, like, ‚I hate you,‘ or ‚You make me hate me.‘

I have to admit I’ve found myself doing the same things that a lot of other rock stars do or are forced to do. Which is not being able to respond to mail, not being able to keep up on current music, and I’m pretty much locked away a lot. The outside world is pretty foreign to me.

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it.

The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one’s furniture.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.

Confidence, as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I loved cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved.

You know, Nirvana used to start rehearsals with the three of us just jamming. For, like, a half an hour, just noise and freeform crap – and usually it was crap. But sometimes things would come from it, and some songs on Nevermind came from that, and ‚Heart Shaped Box‘ and stuff on ‚In Utero‘ just happened that way.

You can’t always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

When I’m writing, I’m thinking about how the songs are going to play live. Fifty bars of rap don’t translate onstage. No matter how potent the music, you lose the crowd. They want a hook; they want to sing your stuff back to you.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It’s not super-poetic, it’s just from the heart.

With music, you often don’t have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don’t know why.

Nothing feels better than going onstage and everybody is singing every word – and actually wanting to see you.

You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.

When I was born, that was the music my mother was listening to. Michael Jackson is a third parent to me.

I’ve been on tour since I was 16, and I always do meet-and-greets before and after shows, so you kind of build these friendships with people. I have girls come up to me and tell me exactly what’s going on in their love lives.

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh?

It was that famous joke: What’s the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the band? ‚Hey, I wrote a song.‘

Everyone my age probably grew up listening to the ‚perreos‘ of Plan B.

I just wanted to be a composer; I became an actor by default, really. I got a scholarship to a college of music and drama, hoping to take a scholarship in music. But I ended up as an acting student, so I’ve stuck with that for the last 50-odd years.

If tomorrow I want to release a rock album or I want to release a bachata album, nobody can tell me anything – why can’t I?

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

I never went to rock concerts when I was a kid. I didn’t see any rock & roll bands.