“My secrets must be poetic to be believable.”

You never really know what’s going to happen. You never know what the audience is going to be like or how they’re going to behave.

I don’t like being completely isolated. I need the energy from other people.

In England you’re skewered on the altar of pop culture if you become pretentious.

Anarchy is the only slight glimmer of hope.

I think people are afraid to express their opinions half the time.

People are so brainwashed by the rules that they don’t know what really matters.

Of course we’re doing it for the money. We’ve always done it for the money.

Music should elevate you. You can be raised, or left stranded. You can’t be raised all the time, in my experience. This might be a rare moment. You might just go up to that level but that’s always good.

Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.

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.

He stole my music but he gave me my name.

If you’re really on some heavily addictive drug, you think about the drug, and everything else is secondary. You try and make everything work, but the drug comes first.

Always as a musician you must have one thing you do well.

Americans shocked me by their behavior and their narrow-mindedness.

I think, like most people, my moral values tend to be pretty fuzzy.

When you write songs, you have to like them yourself first, but then you have to make everyone else like them, because you can force them to play it, but you can’t force them to like it.

Those are shrines. Some people believe spirits live in them.

They can because they think they can.

I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

I believe the Japan-U.S. alliance is the only indispensable alliance, and I’d like to use my visit to further strengthen this relationship.

I just want to continue the way I am going.

I am a great believer that you need passion and energy to create a truly successful business.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

I believe things cannot make themselves impossible.