“Your political system is actually too democratic. The fact that Americans vote on every bill and proposition can prolong bigotry indefinitely, especially where it is aimed at minority groups.”

I have two sisters. My father is Greek and comes from a family of seven. My mother is English and comes from a family of five.

I don’t have joy in watching myself, whereas, actually, I quite like listening to my own music.

At a certain age I just stopped arguing. I realized that there was no way [my father] could see, because for him to approve of what I was doing, he would have to have some belief in me as a musician.

I’d never touch anything. I think it’s foolhardy to play around with the face that you’ve been given. To have a little snip or a tuck, I think, is really quite obscene.

I’m surprised that I’ve survived my own dysfunction, really.

There are very few things in my life that I can’t have if I want them. So when I see something that I can’t have, immediately I’m obsessed by it.

I also think I could probably repeat the commercial success; whether I want to or not is a different matter. I think there is still better work inside me.

This stuff [marijuana] keeps me sane and happy. I’d say it’s a great drug – but obviously it’s not very healthy.

People, you can never change the way they feel. Better let them do what they will. For they will, if you let them, steal your heart.

I seem to think that anything worth having in life has to be painful to attain.

As I became George professionally and everyone called me George, Yog became the name that people who knew me from before started to use. It became more valuable to me.

I left school at 17 and was a star by the time I was 18 – in certain parts of the world anyway.

I don’t go for safe options. Romantically, I go for people who are a pain in the ass.

[My family] is one of the strongest families you’re ever likely to see.

Change is a stranger you have yet to know.

I think my idea of a perfect romance is when two people really belong to each other.

In a democracy, there should be representation from every field.

Vegetarian food is actually good for the body.

Winning and losing have their significance in a democracy. But there should be no arrogance in victory, nor should there be any despondency in defeat.

The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder.

Democracy no longer means what it was meant to. It has been taken back into the workshop. Each of its institutions has been hollowed out, and it has been returned to us as a vehicle for the free market, of the corporations. For the corporations, by the corporations.

Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,- criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, – this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society

Allah guards the justice loving government, even if it is the government of non-Muslims, and destroys the tyrant government, even if it is the government of Muslims.

The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.