When you're younger, you see the people who are in power and think they must have that position because of some degree of skill. And as you get older, you realize it's not true, that most people in those positions are absolutely inept. And this naturally makes you feel better about yourself.

I first bought a Buffy Sainte-Marie record when I was 12, and her music has always remained with me. In the 1960s, as a political activist, Buffy's lyrics were fearless, and I'm very grateful for all the risks that she took.

I have found the best way to avoid ending your life as a bitter wreck is to start out as one.

Congratulations to Prince Charles for banning foie gras from all his functions.

As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters.

I don't even know if I exist offstage.

I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press.

The most common phrase bandied about these days is 'Oh my God'. People say it automatically all the time - not realising that that's a form of prayer.

There has to reach a point where you've said enough.

For me to think in terms of employing security seems ostentatious.

England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in.

My family, although they're very large on both my parents' sides, they don't know much about their family tree. Occasionally, they try to dig, but they can't get very far, and it's baffling. In Dublin, it seems that so many public records were wiped out; it's proven to be very difficult, so I know very little.

Even though I've been reasonably well known for quite a long time, I still can't get a record on daytime radio or on MTV.

I never imagined I'd be a solo artist. And now I couldn't imagine being part of a group.

I'm capable of looking on the bright side. I just don't do it very often.

I've only been to Ireland once, and I felt I would wake up with voices in my head, almost like music, and that if I were a songwriter, I would be very inspired.

Women don't go to war to kill other women. Wars and armies and nuclear weapons are essentially heterosexual hobbies.

I'm fascinated by people in their eighties and nineties. Especially those who are still creating and living in an interesting way. I am fascinated by them because they have so much to say now that they've lived for so long.

I began to go to concerts when I was 12 years old.

War, I thought, was the most negative aspect of male heterosexuality. If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men.

The body changes shape and there's nothing you can do about it.

I know L.A. well, but it's a police state.

I know I will never have a hit single in America.

If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won't hear an English accent. You'll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.

I think there are unseen powers who don't want pop music to be anything other than glorified Madonnas.

Well, I'm a Catholic by birth and you can never shed it.

Everything about my life is private, really. I'm not so sure that any of it has ever been public.

That was the problem with the 'celibate' word because they don't consider for a moment that you'd rather not be, but you just are. I was never a sexual person.

Not everybody is absolutely stupid. Why on earth would I be racist, what would I be trying to achieve?

I've been pilloried so many times that I begin to expect it now.

With the issue of immigration, it's very difficult because, although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England, the more the British identity disappears.

Let lying dogs sleep is something I always say in reference to the Smiths.

I would find the idea of compiling a setlist that doesn't wildly excite me to be too restricting.

That's why I do this music business thing, it's communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.

If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity.

You are bound to pick up influences.

I don't think I'm ever forgiven for anything, which is baffling because I'm not on TV that much.

I'm not an anarchist, but I believe that people don't want the royal family - the so-called royal family.

The Queen is the ultimate dictator.

Killing a stag is like killing a child.

It's always nice to receive a compliment.

I always seem to be singing against the grain.

I don't want to go on much longer, really. I think that would suggest a lack of imagination. A certain lack of dignity also.

I still prefer horses to human beings.

It's so tedious that everyone must be defined.

It could be construed that the reason I wouldn't wish to live in England is the immigration explosion. And that's not true at all.

Pop music has progressed.

Age gives you a great sense of proportion. You can be very hard on yourself when you're younger but now I just think 'well everybody's absolutely mad and I'm doing quite well'.

You may not realize this, but people have the power to change the world.

I normally live in Los Angeles, if you can call it normally living.