The function of music is to release us from the boredom of existence.

It's better to be quotable than honest, I don't speak, I quote. I am a fraud. I have cobbled together my personality from hundreds of little bits. I am simultaneously the most genuine and the most artificial person you will ever meet.

To be worthy of assassination takes more than some crappy little book.

I don't think I'm known for my gifts - I'm known for my gall. I don't want to be just a famous person - I'm too old.

Everyone says Oscar Wilde was a dandy, but he wasn't, he was an aesthete. He took pleasure in food and stuff like that. Dandyism is much more austere-much more Calvinistic, more neurotic - it oscillates between narcissism and neurosis.

The motivation of all artists is 'Look at me, Mum'.

People are obsessed by happiness, but there are a lot of other invigorating experiences available.