I can't imagine my life without the extraordinary bebop jazz revolution in New York in late '40s and '50s.

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

I don't find the business easy. The moment you start talking about the business, you start sounding like someone in Spinal Tap.

I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever anybody does, which is almost like saying you might as well leave it as it is. I'm naturally quite conformist, really. If I go to a country and they say, "You've got to drive on the right," I'm not going to drive on the left to show that I'm different. I'm able to stick to the law. I'm not a soldier for anything, either. I'm only a singer and I don't think it makes a difference what we sing.

Potentially, America is really the greatest, but it's not yet, I don't think. It's too much like an old-fashioned empire, waving the stick and dropping too many bombs on too many people.

I'm just a very primitive, infantile folk singer.

We did not get any money from the early records. It was all taken by crooked managers. It is just a gangster's paradise.