People are encouraged by what I do. You can feel it. I feel it. People are ready to embrace their humanity and to embrace the rest of the human race. People are ready for the idea that we're all brothers and sisters and that we need to cooperate with one another.

I am one of the best five writers to come out of English music since the war.

You take the risk of being rejected. If you have pretentions to be an artist of any kind, you have to take the risk of people rejecting you and thinking you're an arsehole.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

The United States has held out against taking part in any of the world consensus that there should be a court of human rights or that there should be an international court of criminal justice.

Life is long. But it goes fast.

I always used to look at books and wonder how anybody could come up with so many words. But my divorce and then falling in love with somebody else has released in me an ability to write in other ways apart from songs.