You've got a beautiful country with so many beautiful people and so many beautiful things happening and stuff like that lets it down. I feel sad for them.

I like me food. I also don't like me exercising. It's something me don't do very well. But it's something I've got to get into.

There aren't many great adverts for marriage or parenthood. It always looks so stressful, and that's what I've been scared of. What you don't realise is how much you're going to get back.

I'd make a better U.S. president than George W. Bush. Bush is an idiot. I'm a better public speaker than him. It makes you wonder about the voters.

There is a lot of snobbery towards pop music, to me and pop in general - it's kind of a despised art form.

I have a gigantic ego and need to be at the top of the pile and be doing amazingly well; also, at the same time, I'm just pleased to be anywhere.

I'm mainstream, and I have pretty chart-tastic tastes. I don't often veer away from a big melodic song with big words for big stadiums.

People say you've got to be OK with your own company, but tell me why?

On an emotional level, success in America would be terrible for me; it would be insane. I really, seriously, never want to be famous here.

I think dysfunctional people are being funneled into very corporate behaviour. Look at the Brits... no one's fighting, and it's boring.

I'm constantly doing new stuff, and I want it to be received really well. Who knows what's ego, what's business, what's artistic. It all shifts on a day-to-day basis.

I've had to make friends with an awful lot of bad fashion choices.

I'm trying to not follow fashion. I don't even like the word. But I do like clothes, and I like nicely cut clothes that last and that are built to be worn for the next 30 years.

I enjoy nakedness. I am a bit of a naturist at heart.

I'm conscious of age, but I'm more suspicious of it than anything.

I did the rock 'n roll-pop cliche of getting burnt out. I'm not the first person that happened to, and I'm sure I won't be the last.

I'm still looking for the rules of what is and isn't pop music. I'm pop. I mean, of course I am. What isn't pop? There should be a pop amnesty where everyone reclaims it.

I'm not educated. I left school when I was 16, with no qualifications.

In Los Angeles, I feel connected to a hubbub of strangeness. And I enjoy that; I like strangeness.

I'm quite open to the fact that I might be a tinfoil-hat freak.

Inside me there is a fat man dying to get out.

I think there are ghosts. I haven't seen or heard anything. I've definitely felt something, but it's not scary.

I've never, ever, raised a fist to anybody in my life.

I couldn't live without my music, man. Or me mum.

I don't have anything that I treasure at all. They're just things. I tend to buy an awful lot of stuff, like clothes and things. But I wouldn't be bothered if my house burns down tomorrow.

I still find trusting people quite hard. I've got a couple of mates that I do let in, but that's it. It's something I've got to sort out - I cut people off.

When people come out of rehab, they usually go to secondary rehab for another six months and then enter back into society gradually. But I came out and did Top Of The Pops straight away!

I'm a bit of a slag... Some people don't think it's very nice, but I don't care... I've got hormones, and sex is there, so why not? Sex is good. Everybody does it, and everybody should!

The thing about drugs and sex is that you lose all your inhibitions. I've had sex in trains, planes, wine bars... and quite a few car parks!

With the war and everything that's going on, unless you're Susan Sarandon, the best route is to keep your mouth shut. For me it is, anyway!

It would be great to see somebody like Kid Rock kissing a man. But I'm sure that he wouldn't like the prospect of it put to him, and I won't even go there with Eminem.

You know, I am a mainstream person with mainstream tastes, and I want to hear the hits.

I'm a bit hesitant to do anything because I'm actually kind of lazy and I'd like an easier life from now on. The world's a massive place with lots of early mornings and late starts when you're working.

Do I think I'm a national treasure? I don't see why not? I don't see why I shouldn't be. I'm a good lad, really.

I am not as bad as people would suggest. Not as good as I would like to be.

I've lived in L.A. for a long time, and they say, 'If you sit in a barber's shop for long enough, you will get a hair cut.' Well, if you live in Los Angeles for long enough, you're going to get some surgery.

Depression isn't about, 'Woe is me, my life is this, that and the other', it's like having the worst flu all day that you just can't kick.

My dad sent Frank Sinatra a dollar bill to autograph, and when it came back, signed, he had it framed: it was always up on the wall in whatever flat we were in.

I come from the tradition of a big Irish family that loves to sing. I love to perform.

It's a huge responsibility being a solo act.

I feel like I'm always having to justify why I haven't kept in touch with anyone from the old days in Stoke-on-Trent, but I'm like that with anybody. I don't let anybody in. I just rely on myself.

I've been watching what I eat. When I was putting on all the weight, I was drinking Guinness and not eating. I didn't have room to because I was drinking all the time.

I've deliberately tried to calm myself down because eventually I want to be a good role model to my kids.

There's no point regretting things. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Life's too short to worry about things I've said.

To be honest, I don't want No. 1's anymore. Now, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind the odd few, but I'd also like a record going in at eight and staying around.

If you want to sell the most records, duet with me. If you need someone to come in and bless your record sales, I'm your man.

Scientology, Buddhism, the Kabbalah... if it makes people's lives better, and easier, then I'll do it. Why not? People scoffed at Christianity 2,000 years ago, didn't they?

Because I'm no longer a pop star 24 hours a day, I'm no longer bogged down by the stupid stuff that used to cripple me. I don't bruise easily any more.

I show off - I'm a very good show off. It's what I do, it's what I'm good at.

The entertainment industry and my place in it is a place where you burn brightly for as long as you can.