If there is a perfect book to start the year with it has to be Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch.

A trumpet sounds pretty much like a trumpet, and that's true of a lot instruments; pianos sound like pianos, but there's something about the guitar - the range of possibilities is much broader.

Advertising and art are getting all mixed up. I think some of the most exciting pieces of TV are the commercials.

Every album is difficult. If it was easy, we'd make one a month.

First love is alright, as far as it goes. Last love – that’s the one I’m interested in.

Clarity of vision - what you've been looking at from the wrong angle and not seen at all.

The big cop-out would be to accept popularity rather than opting to try to create potent work. It's so easy to do the popular thing, the expected thing, and that's where you start to cheat yourself - and your fans, in the end - because there's an inherent dishonesty in pandering and dishing up what everyone's expecting.