“Human progress depends on unreasonable people. Reasonable people accept the world as they meet it; unreasonable people persist in trying to change it.”

Music can’t change the world.

We’re looking at the singular condition of poverty. All the other individual problems spring from that condition… doesn’t matter if it’s death, aid, trade, AIDS, famine, instability, governance, corruption or war. All of that is poverty.

And whereas women had to fight to find their way into the workforce, men are now fighting to reclaim their place in the family structure.

So when I got to 50 I just thought, Hold on: I’m thin. I’ve got my hair. I’m well off. I survived, you know

They thought they were Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall. In fact, they were more like Tom and Jerry

But if somebody dies, if something happens to you, there is a normal process of depression, it is part of being human, and some people view it as a learning experience etc.

It’s really very simple, Governor. When people are hungry they die. So spare me your politics and tell me what you need and how you’re going to get it to these people.

I don’t think anyone sets out to malign poor people but certainly that’s what we do through organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

I’m sure I’m very difficult to live with because of my make-up and personality.

When I hit 11 so did the careers of Dylan and the Stones. A year later it was the Who and the Kinks.

You cannot even begin to understand contemporary African politics if you have not read this fascinating book

Blair has called Africa ‘a scar on our conscience’. It is more. It is the gaping wound of the world’s soul.

Rock and Roll is instant coffee.

Men who are not given any voice in this because of the secret nature of the courts, what they’re left with is dressing up ridiculously, but at least using humour to try and draw attention to their kids

Music is still above all else the thing that does it for me

Certainly, I think being depressed is absolutely part of the human condition, it has to be, if there’s joy there’s its opposite, and it’s something you ride if you possibly can.

That’s why I want to speak to you now. To say: no person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone.

The necessity of poetry has to be stated over and over, but only to those who have reason to fear its power.

If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from the ground up.

It’s been very helpful for my career, but I’m trying to stay on the path I was on before.

I love actors and I love to create an environment where they feel safe to connect and thrive and try things.

I was a wild, mischievous kid, and I had tremendous imagination. Any experience I had, I’d try to reenact it.

Because it’s up to the journalist not only to understand what I’m trying to convey, but to convey that understanding through their process.

Don’t try to be what you’re not. If you’re nervous, be nervous. If you’re shy, be shy. It’s cute.