“Lyricists play with words.”

Every time I felt low, I just put on an Elvis record and I’d feel great, beautiful.

Painting is a magical process that I like, where you conjure something out of nothing; you get a little idea that leads you through. You can go into a trance while you’re doing it, so it’s a nice contrast to real life.

And what’s the point of changing when I’m happy as I am?

At the end of the Beatles, I really was done in for the first time in my life. Until then, I really was a kind of cocky sod.

I realize now that taking drugs was like taking an aspirin without having a headache.

When you got a job to do, you got to do it well. You gotta give the other fellow hell.

Animation is not just for children – it’s also for adults who take drugs.

I love the past. There are parts of the past I hate, of course.

When I write, there are times — not always — when I hear John (Lennon) in my head, I’ll think, OK, what would we have done here?, and I can hear him gripe or approve.

If children are studying the 20th century, I’m in their text books.

Bend like the willow, winds gonna blow you hard and cold tonight. Life as it happens, nobody warns you, willow hold on tight.

When we were starting off as kids, just the idea of maybe going to do this as a living instead of getting what we thought was going to be a boring job, was exciting.

If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat.

Songs have some kind of structure that connects with people`s hearts.

When you get the money, you still need to keep going; you don’t stop. There has to be something else. I think it’s the freedom to do what you want and to live your dreams.

I don’t think of myself as a legend. I just love what I do. I love playing with my band, I love going to beautiful places and give people good music. I love what I do, I`m very lucky man.

If I hadn’t had Freddie Mercury’s lyrics to hold on to as a kid I don’t know where I would be. It taught me about all forms of music… it would open my mind. I never really had a bigger teacher in my whole life.

Pac get busy. People can’t take nothing from him. On the lyrics, he get busy, straight up.

I’m a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.

Even at the time, I realised this couldn’t be right, that this interpretation didn’t fit with the rest of the lyrics. But that wasn’t an issue with me. The song was about what I said, and I used to listen to it again and again, on my own, whenever I got the chance.

I remember when I was very young, I read an article by Fats Domino which has really influenced me. He said, ‘You should never sing the lyrics out very clearly.

I can sing love; only I’m afraid the lyrics might get shattered again.

Lyrics are coming to you all the time. I get inspiration in the middle of the night.

The way I work uses a very on-the-spot flow, and I write the lyrics and the music when I feel them coming.