“I just really want to make albums – and however I can, I will.”

I vote Labour and can’t begin to acknowledge anything good that comes from a Tory.

I’m surrounded by friends and family who are not that impressed by celebrity. They don’t have any problem telling me I’m acting like an idiot or I’m not that funny.

I’ve spent a lot of time being bohemian and sleeping on floors, but eventually I want to have kids and I want to bring them up in a secure environment.

I try not to brand myself ‘weird’ any more because it sticks.

My favourite authors are Milan Kundera and Jeanette Winterson.

Dressing up is like therapy; I feel better in myself when I’ve made an effort.

I don’t have a daily routine, beyond brushing my teeth. It changes every day.

I just have an inability to lie.

We all get old, but I always say the skinny, pretty girls will be screwed.

I think initially, the record industry struggled a lot with digital media because there are a lot of aspects to it that can potentially destroy our industry.

Whatever you are, you have the right to get married.

Some men think that if you’re empowered and sure of yourself then you’re a man-hater, but it’s like, ‘No, I’m just the same as you are, but maybe just a tiny bit more confident.’

All the things that I find beautiful have a darkness about them.

You feel a sense of elation seeing yourself on a billboard.

I’m not that materialistic. I like nice clothes and that, but I don’t spend lots of money on stuff. I’m not really into TV, I don’t have an iPod, I’ve got a gramophone.

I like someone with a really good and dark sense of humour.

When I’m recording my album, I want to be acting, or when I’m on set, I want to be making music.

Nothing me and Kanye can do musically was gonna match the event of what we were trying to do. So we were trying to deliver an album and experience at one time; that was the idea for ‘Watch The Throne’.

When you have a reputation for making not only good songs but great albums, that in itself creates added artistic pressure. But, at the end of the day, I guess that pressure is something I welcome.

My first album was mainly dealing with street issues, and it was ‘coded’: it was called ‘Reasonable Doubt.’ So the things I was talking about…

I don’t sit around with my friends and talk about money, ever. On a record, that’s different.

You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like ‘I still go to the projects.’ I’m like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it’s so cool?

MTV made a huge impact. Heavy rotation took you from selling 1m albums to 20m albums, and that meant a lot of dough.

We’ve made bad albums in the past, and people have bought them. I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m just grateful for it.