The fire in the belly is essential, otherwise you become Michael Buble - famous and meaningless.

He drove me home in the van, complaining, 'Women only like me for my mind'.

My family, although they're very large on both my parents' sides, they don't know much about their family tree. Occasionally, they try to dig, but they can't get very far, and it's baffling. In Dublin, it seems that so many public records were wiped out; it's proven to be very difficult, so I know very little.

I've always assumed there's a dark river flowing beneath my fans' desires.

Artists aren't really people. And I'm actually 40 per cent papier mache.

If you must write prose or poems, the words you use should be your own. Don't plagiarize or take 'on loan'. There's always someone, somewhere, with a big nose, who knows, who'll trip you up and laugh when you fall.

I'd rather produce art than become art.