Socialism isn't a dirty word; it just means sharing. Really, it's just the bureaucratic arm of Christianity.

The Holy Spirit ain't got a pen.

I don't know if this is the kind of retrospective analysis that people are fond of applying to their work or actions, but it feels like I knew I was going to be famous and I knew that an element of that would be traumatic, so that if I could make myself something big and otherworldly, it would be a kind of defence.

I don't mind having a reputation as a serious and spiritual person. I think that would be a nice reputation to have

If anybody needs any help with anything, I'm prepared to help.

If you've got any concern at all about animal welfare, you've got to not eat meat.

My mate Karl once told me he’d been looking after this five-year-old boy who – not knowing enough to have an ironic inflection to his words – said, ‘I want something.’ He didn’t know what it was. Not ‘I want sweets’, or ‘a can of Coke’, or ‘to watch the Tweenies’, or whatever it is they’re into now (I like Bagpuss), but ‘I want something.’ All of us, I think, have that feeling. And what heroin does when you first start taking it is tell you what that something is.