The people who make history are not the people who make it who are there but the people who make it and then write about it.

My mission was always intended to be slightly outside the public eye, because that makes me appear more interesting than I really am. A lot of people don’t realise that merely by staying away, you can create a myth.

I get twitchy if I don't pick up a guitar or sit at the piano every now and then... I have to do it; I don't have a choice.

The TV licence people just can't believe we don't have a television. I'm a bolshie git. I shout at them things like, 'I don't need TV, I'm an intellectual.'

The people who make history are not the people who make it who are there but the people who make it and then write about it.

Im going to become the best-remembered artist of my generation by staying away from the party as often as possible. That way, people will remember me, not because I was great, but because I didnt cause them any later embarrassment.

Use it or lose it is a cliche because it's true.