I don't speak particularly well. That's one of the consequences of being extremely ugly.

When you don't have food in your life, just for a day, it makes you realise you're lucky to have it the next day. So the day after fasting, the music that comes out will be very joyous.

You have two years to make a record and do what you like to it; then, you have 10 minutes to do an interview that could mess it all up. It's the Crispian Mills Syndrome.

Rihanna has this thick tone, so it's very hard to annoy anybody. It's like a beautifully squeezed tube of toothpaste.

Anyone who criticises me for talking about fair trade is a few pebbles short of a beach. Because everyone should care about it, just like everyone should care about the environment, because we all live here.

I always dream about other musicians. And they're never interested in hanging out with us. It's like being at school and the bigger boys don't want to play with you!

Record sales don't really mean anything. For us, the pressure is imagining some 15-year-old kid in Cincinnati who buys our album and doesn't feel like he wasted his pocket money.

Celebrity culture has gone crazy, and I think the reason is that real news is just not bearable, and it also seems impossible to change anything.

The goal is to try and make the perfect song. Which of course will never happen.

Well, I don't like the word 'rock star,' the two words, 'rock star.' Not even 'soft rock star. Not even limestone star. I don't like those words.

A band's only unique thing is its chemistry, especially if none of you are prodigious players or particularly handsome. The one thing you have is your uniqueness, so we hold on to that.

I think it's part of being English, particularly if you are middle-class - you're always looking to be reminded that you are no good and you are always actually embarrassed about being successful.

Before our albums are released I feel like we still own it, that we have control over our music. But once it's out there in the world it's no longer ours.

I think we're a band with a lot of history now so it's nice to come up with something that doesn't have any history at all.

When you're on your fifth album, you are going to be judged against all your previous work and expectations.

Even though the album is an endangered species, can we try and make a coherent and good one, even if it's like making a horse and cart at a Nascar conference?

Looking after your ears is unfortunately something you don't think about until there's a problem.

I've had tinnitus for about ten years, and since I started protecting my ears it hasn't got any worse - touch wood.

I could be walking down the street one minute and get a handshake and then get spat on the next. I'm never sure whether to wear gloves or a helmet.

I know being on a major label is meant to be antiquated, but we're fine with it.

I never talk about my wife: we're both in public professions but we try to keep our private life private.

Being such a big band is never a problem but it can be distracting.

You can never say you're big - I don't think you can ever take anything like that for granted.

I do worry - a lot.

There's a reason why people who've had bad relationships with their parents listen to angry stuff.

I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world.

I do an hour's yoga and go running every day. Then I see a picture of myself and I still look like a skinny, potbellied idiot - and I thought I had turned into this superhunk!

You know, it's possible for two humans to be in a relationship without there needing to be some public reason for that relationship.

I think that the fact that a relationship becomes public is a bit of a bummer. Because it can distract from the real reason why you're together, which is that you just like each other.

Anything that we think is incredible and beautiful and wonderful, we ascribe to something that we don't know what it is.

Some people misconstrue our band just to be a commercial venture.

Maybe it's because I'm English, but in terms of how people perceive us I only pick up on the negative side of it.

I'm competitive with anyone who writes a good song - I don't care if it's a band or solo artist or whoever.

Music is split up now into little pockets.

Somebody rang me up the other day and said 'Yellow' was on a karaoke machine. That made me genuinely excited. It's got a nice beat.

Once a week, I don't eat for 24 or 30 hours. Your brain becomes very lucid about ideas. It also made me so grateful for food and for life, basically, and that's why a lot more joy is coming through our music, I think.

People say it's a bit repetitive to say, 'Oh oh oh oh oh oh,' but you can't translate the melody into words.

If I hear a song that I like, my first instinct is to find out about who made it.

There's a part of me that wishes no one knew anything about me, but it's just not realistic.

I think everyone in their life goes through challenges, whether it's love or money, kids or illness... You have to really not run away from that stuff.

I'm saying One Direction are brilliant! And I'm not kidding. Because their songs are really good.

Just because a romantic relationship ends doesn't mean that the other facets of your relationship have to end... or, indeed, doesn't mean they can't get better.

To be totally honest with you, I'm so happy to be alive every day.

I may not be as lyrically adept as Jay-Z and Morrissey, but at least I can sing what I feel.

I genuinely love Oasis, and I also genuinely love Beyonce. My body gets the same pleasure. If you like different types of music, it's OK to say it.

I know I am in a band that is famous, and my private life is famous. I get it, and it's fine. Even when I grew up in a village, people wanted to know who was going to the dance with whom, and I understand, but I think if I engage with it too much, it won't be that healthy.

I'm happy in L.A., but I will live wherever my kids are, and I don't really mind where it is.

India appeals to everybody. For me personally, I always felt like we would come here when we wanted to embrace all colours. I don't mean racially, but literally; just all the colours of the world.

For people who write songs, it's a gift you're given. You become good at the craft, but you're given the gift.

The thing I really believe deep down is that everybody has a gift for something. Our job as adults is to make sure all children have the opportunity to find their gift.