Every band needs it's own special chemistry. And Bez was a very good chemist.

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.

That came from my mother. She was the biggest influence on my life. I remember once refusing to get on a bus with her because she was wearing a mink, and I thought we should be taking a taxi. She just said, 'Who cares what people think?' and I remember sitting on that bus, being utterly embarrassed, but knowing somehow that she was totally correct.

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

This is Manchester, we do things differently here.

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.

There is no celebrity quite as powerful as the local, homegrown celebrity.