Most of all, I love Manchester. The crumbling warehouses, the railway arches, the cheap abundant drugs. That's what did it in the end. Not the money, not the music, not even the guns. That is my heroic flaw: my excess of civic pride.

Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does.

I am not a piece of hash. I'm in charge of Factory Records. I think.

I’ll just say one word: Icarus. If you get it, great. If you don’t, that’s fine too. But you should probably read more.

Energy, energy? Energy is, is, it's nothing more than a lot of new age hokum masquerading as religion.

I'm a minor player in my own life story.

I've been a minor celebrity since I was 23 years old.