Once you've grown to accept something and it becomes part of the system you've inherited, you don't even notice it any longer.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

Feelings are more dangerous than ideas, because they aren't susceptible to rational evaluation. They grow quietly, spreading underground, and erupt suddenly, all over the place.

I suppose I am reluctant about being any sort of 'star' and I didn't particularly want to be portrayed as one.

Nearly all the things I do that are of any merit at all start off just being good fun.

Whenever there's a new music, there's a new way of listening. And whenever there's a new way of listening, there are new musics that follow from that. And people start listening differently - that can either mean in different places or at different volumes or in different social groups or through different technologies.

So I believe in singing to such an extent that if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing become a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for co-operation with others. This seems to be about the most important thing a school could do for you.