It's interesting when something new comes along, a band of dwarfs playing electronic harps or something, but I'm not searching.

We were never a band that did 96 takes of the same thing. I had heard of groups that were into that kind of excess around that time. They'd work on the same track for three or four days and then work on it some more, but that's clearly not the way to record an album. If the track isn't happening and it creates some sort of psychological barrier, even after an hour or two, then you should stop and do something else. Go out: go to the pub, or a restaurant or something. Or play another song.

I don't deal in technique. I deal in emotions.

All my houses are isolated. Many is the time I just stay home alone.

You never knew what was going to happen in concert. It was a really exciting prospect to go onstage, and you can hear that in the live recordings ... wherever we were and whatever year it was, we always went onstage determined to do our best.

Every musician wants to do something which will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did it with 'Stairway to Heaven.'

My vocation is more in composition really than anything else - building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army.