People think once you get famous and rich you move out of the public sphere and you have nothing left to write about. I've heard that - Bruce Springsteen was this real street boy, now he's got this big house. How does that compute? If you don't look at the material side of someone's life, if you look at more the emotional side, there's always a wealth of stuff to write about.

When two great saints meet, it's a humbling experience.

I did cocaine for about a year around the time of Sgt Pepper. Coke and maybe some grass to balance it out. I was never completely crazy with cocaine. I'd been introduced to it and at first it seemed OK, like anything that's new and stimulating. When you start working your way through it, you start thinking: 'Mmm, this is not so cool an idea,' especially when you start getting those terrible comedowns.

The music publishing I own is fabulous recording.

Sometimes you write a song in a certain era and it's got a certain kind of significance.

I didn't earn that much in record royalties. You've only got to look at my sales in 1980 to figure that one out.

Drugs had shown me little bits here and there-they had rolled across the carpet once or twice, but I had been able to get them out of my mind.