What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?

There's really never any sort of master plan. I find if I've got a couple of tunes that I think are possibilities, I phone everyone up and get them into the studio and we'll have a go at recording them.

It was the 1950s, you know, and they had a ray gun, which was basically a flashlight with a sort of trigger on it. And it buzzed and a red light, you know, came on. But anyway we all had one - Davy Crockett hat.

I'm still kind of a hapless character in my everyday life. But when it comes to the writing, my influences are very old influences. I love American music of absolutely all stripes, including show tunes, advertising jingles, theme tunes from quiz shows, all kinds of American music.

In the '70s, you had to come up with an album every year whether you were ready or not.

Elvis Costello had a brand new bag. He was a musician, but he knew all about the attitude part of it.

When somebody like Elvis Costello comes along, anybody can make a good record with him.