Drinking was a big help with me making music, because drinking gives you courage. But it also makes you reckless, and that's the trouble.

Clint Eastwood said, the only things America has contributed to civilization are the western and jazz. And I don't think westerns are bad, but lots of people make great cinema. But jazz is right there.

Because of my politics, people think I'm anti-American. But I was quite the reverse. What I don't like about the United States is when the government acts like an old, imperial 18th- or 19th-century European power.

I think it's hypocritical to complain about the rise of China. For 50 years, we were telling everybody in the world that the big threat was Communism, so now the countries that were Communists are now rampant capitalists - and they're doing very well, in some ways much better than the UK. Well, we asked for it. We told them that's what you have to do, and they're doing it, buying up your biggest hotels in New York. You have to laugh.

I was a latecomer to politics. Maybe I'm just very slow. I got to everything when everyone else had left.

The most effective instruments do have a vocal quality.

What I like about popular culture is its accessibility, and I've covered popular songs because they are amazing things.