Quotes

The older I get the less I know about women. They are completely infallible and totally impossible.

[on playing Live Aid (1985)] I have terrible memories of it all going wrong. I'd put together an all-star band and the set was fraught with problems. We had David Gilmour on guitar and, poor David, his guitar wasn't working for the first couple of songs. With his first hit, the drummer put his stick through the drum skin. And then my microphone wasn't working, which for a singer is a bit of a handicap. A roadie ran on with another mic so then I was holding two mics taped together and I wasn't really sure which one to sing into. It was a great day though.

[on recording Bob Dylan songs] As far as the words are concerned it's a bit like an actor tackling Shakespeare (William Shakespeare). I like finding the melodies that Dylan's hidden away in there.

[on Brian Eno] I'm much more serious than him. He loves to talk! He has to talk the talk. And I tend to rather sit and watch more. That's where the main difference is. But we're both self-centered. I think we both think the world revolves around us.

[on Jimi Hendrix] He was the best guitar player and had a great look and a great attitude. I saw him play when I was a student. I was very impressed. Very influenced.

[on T.S. Eliot] When I started reading Eliot, I really felt incredibly close to some of the things I read. I could feel this. It's fabulous when you do that, when you discover somebody who you like, when you kind of feel those feelings, even though he articulates them better. He would probably be my favorite poet. Some of it is really beautiful and sad, haunting. Words can be very powerful. I find them very difficult.

I like quality things. Yes, I do have a vast wardrobe, but it's certainly not on the Elton John scale.

[on recording cover versions of classic songs] I like my own lyrics, but I don't write as prolifically as I would like to. So that's probably why I went into the whole world of interpretation.

I heard Dylan [Bob Dylan] when he first came out, and I remember seeing people wandering around with his album under their arms. But at that time I wasn't into . . . folk music: "Oh, acoustic guitars?". It was not my thing. I was very much into Otis Redding, soul music, Stax, Motown. And guitars had to be electric for me, to be exciting.

[on his political beliefs] Never was anything really. Never really voted. Always lived in a huge majority where I don't think my vote would have made much difference. Where I was born it was a 23,000 Labour majority and now I live in a similar Tory majority. But yes, I am conservative by nature so it would be fair to say I was supporting them now. That said, I always felt politics and art don't mix very well.

It's good to have layers in your life. If I'm in a limousine on the way to the airport, I still haven't forgotten what it is like to stand in the rain at a north-eastern bus stop for hours. I do have memories of deprivation, but I don't carry them around like some bitter, left-wing hammer to beat people on the head with. The human experience is all about contrast.

You know, we were poor, and I thought I was poor, but in many ways my life was easy. My education was funded by the State, I went to a really nice northern grammar school, and then I went to university on a full grant. I was nurtured. I have nothing to kick against.

Making music for a living is quite hard. With every album you have to reinvent the wheel, reinvent Tabasco or HP Sauce. You have to do it again and again and people are quite unforgiving if you don't do your best work. It's like exams. You're only as good as the last record.

It's great to write stuff, but I think it's pretty universal that at a certain point, people write less and less. And that's sad. Because I remember loving it when I found the right phrase to go with a piece of music. And I do that less and less. I haven't stopped writing, but it's just slower.

I think Eton's a fantastic school and every time I do an interview in England people are obsessed by that, by class division, and I think it's a terrible thing. I came from a very poor family and I worked very hard and tried to make good work all my life. And there are certain rewards from doing things like that. I had a lot of determination, of course, and a little bit of talent and I made something of my life which was different from what I'd been born into.

The Nazis knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves. Leni Riefenstahl's movies and Albert Speer's buildings and the mass parades and the flags - just amazing. Really beautiful.

I've always hated pictures of myself. Still do. Terrifying. I don't know why. It's funny now. When I see old pictures, I think: "Oh, I don't look so bad at all." But I never had good-looks confidence as some people do. Some people have this real thing about themselves.

Oh really, don't you [interviewer] find it [Geordie accent] irritating? I don't think I've lost my accent at all. It's still there, and when I'm animated, it comes out very strong.

And the fact that I'm quite shy and conservative in my demeanour anyway, I started being singled out as quite unusual in the job that I do. I wasn't going to start chucking TVs out of windows or anything like that.

People think I wake up in the morning and put on a tuxedo, but I can assure you I don't.

I once stopped a tour bus so I could run into Greggs and buy pasties. I bought 20 and made everyone try one. They are wonderful. I have a predilection for pies, pasties and fish and chips. Although I try and limit the quantities these days.

I was a terribly romantic kid. I was shy and a bit of a loner. I definitely didn't think I was handsome or a ladies' man.

It was that shyness. I started off performing to one side of the stage, sitting at the piano. I had to be forced to stand in the front. The whole thing didn't come naturally to me. The aspect of it I always liked best was the creative side - the look, the covers, the theme, the music... that was my comfort space.

I had no confidence with women. I was terrible at chatting girls up, dreadful. I've never been the guy in the nightclub who could go up to women and know what to say. I've sat back and watched other men do it. Some guys, like Brian Eno, are completely remarkable. Eno could talk to anyone and he was amazing with women. That's never been me. Ever.