We just kind saw the images and knew the cliches, so to have the opportunity to go there and learn something about Russian music and about Russian people and to see things apart from being a tourist.

I liked the idea of writing a song saying I'm happy with who I am, and I don't mind if people think I'm some old git.

I love this idea of shape-shifting and changing when you put on clothes, and turn into somebody else.

A lot of the early songs I wrote were about the experience of going to London and meeting rent boys and transvestites and drag queens. A lot of my early material is that: the wide-eyed adventures of a middle-class boy.

As long as ugly people are not on TV, you should only ever have interesting people on TV.

These days i tend to use one project I do as a kind of offshoot to the next.

I was a magnet for people who want to take advantage of people like me, who think they're part of this life but they're not.