There are very few people I can call real, close friends. They're very, very precious to me.

I don't care what critics and other people think.

I will still carry on changing all the time.

If you wanted to chart new territories and head off over the horizon, you had to make sure you weren't overly influenced by what others were doing ... so it didn't matter what other bands were doing ... we did what we were doing.

I'm very fortunate because I love what I'm doing.

I may not believe in myself, but I believe in what I'm doing.

There was no working title for the album. The record-jacket designer said `When I think of the group, I always think of power and force. There's a definite presence there.' That was it. He wanted to call it `Obelisk'. To me, it was more important what was behind the obelisk. The cover is very tongue-in-cheek, to be quite honest. Sort of a joke on 2001. I think it's quite amusing.