Artists shouldn't be made famous. They have this huge aura of almost god-like quality about them, just because their craft makes a lot of money. And at the same time it is a forced importance... It is man-made so the press can feed off it.

For "Running Up That Hill" we had worked with a drum machine [in 1985]; the basic rhythms of "Running Up That Hill" happened because the whole track was built on a drum machine.

I split it up into working on the two narrative pieces that can tell a story. The scariest thing was whether I'd be any good performing live again. It was such a long time since I'd done any live work. It's so different for me than recording. Every night my audiences were what I would dream of. You could just feel their support.

I haven't actually seen a Lady Gaga tour, but I do think she's very good.

When I'm a man, I will be an astronaut, and find Peter Pan on the second star on the right.

Maybe if my songs feel personal, that's very nice. I like that. I take that as a great compliment.

It's not that I don't like American pop; I'm a huge admirer of it, but I think my roots came from a very English and Irish base. Is it all sort of totally non-American sounding.