I've never experienced chronic poverty, but I know what it's like to live on £3 a week.

The music scene in the '70s was like the United Kingdom in the '70s - we had a lot of unemployment, we had inflation, we had a lot of strikes going on, on a national scale, and a lot of discontent. That was reflected in the music.

You're never quite sure where the song is going, because you might not find the word to rhyme with the end of the line. You have to find associative meaning to get you there. So it's rather like doing a crossword puzzle backwards. A kind of strange, three-dimensional, abstract crossword puzzle.

When I was younger I wish I'd known that what often seemed to be the 'end of the world' often turned out to be a positive and transformative experience!

Those in the developing world have so few rights - we take a lot for granted in the developed world.

I played with the image, because I think image is temporary. It's a projection. It's illusory.

I wouldn't say that I've mellowed. I'm less mellow, perhaps.