Rebellion is the only thing that keeps you alive!

I’m glad to say my father never felt ashamed of me, but my mother probably did.

I thought I wanted to go to drama school or university, and that would have been a completely different life. But what got me was the sound, and hearing it. Hearing everything so loud, I...

I’m a Capricorn, and they flower late.

I do have a strong sense of God. It’s impossible to explain what I mean when I say that, of course.

I’m sick of being self-referential. I don’t want to do any more songs that can be accused of being personal.

My happiness is very fragile.

I live a very nice life. I have a wonderful time. But it’s not lived drawing on a full level. I’m relaxed, cool, and enjoying it.

Of course I have regrets; I’m not stupid.

I’m not sure yet what my higher mission is, but I have a feeling it might be great. Before, I thought my mission was death, but now my mission is life.

I’m having a great life, and I want to go on having one.

I do take care of myself; I get my nails done, and I have a skin doctor, but that’s it. I’m clean and groomed.

I’ve simplified much more in my writing. I say what I’ve got to say, not in metaphor.

Penitentiary songs have been a love of mine for years. They are so wonderful.

The voice of God, if you must know, is Aretha Franklin’s.

The first opera I went to see was Maria Callas singing ‘Tosca’.

I’ve got to where I’ve always wanted to be. I just feel more myself, and I’ve learned not to care what other people think. It’s happened slowly, very slowly. But I did it.

I come from a very left wing Socialist family, anti-war and anti-empire.

I don’t talk about my private life.

The way I choose to show my feelings is through my songs.

Life has changed. People have changed. They are more forgiving, less inclined to rush to judgment. And I have changed.

Well, I really didn’t enjoy some of the movies I did when I was young.

I know for a fact that Heaven and Hell are here on Earth.

The really explicit phrase is doors of perception.

The equipment you’ve got really dictates what you’re going to do. When I started touring, there were no monitors, so I had to take the sound from the hall, and of course it was on...

I want to see my grandchildren grow up. I want to be there for my friends. I want to be able to love the person in my life. I want to work. I want to...

I never saw myself as beautiful. I can look back and see it now, but then? Never.

I never trusted anybody at all. I don’t know why it was so hard, I just didn’t.

All I have to do is what’s right for me.

When I found out my mother wanted me to marry a rich man, I instantly didn’t want any rich man.

I think drugs were used by me as a way of suppressing my natural spirit.

If I let myself sink into depression, I won’t be able to get out. And then I’ll be awfully unhappy. I just have to turn my face to the light and walk on. And trust...

Lovers can do what they like to me – my head is cool.

I was anorexic in the ’60s and ’70s, although it wasn’t called anorexia then. I thought people would be nicer to me if I looked very small and delicate, so food wasn’t high on my...

I serve black tea, which I call Froggy tea. And I have green teas and all sorts of nice teas. I’m serving tea all the time.

The Ballad of Lucy JordanThe morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of Lucy JordanIn a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban townAs she lay there ‘neath the covers dreaming of a thousand loversTill...

Bad behaviour makes men more glamorous. Women get destroyed, thrown out of society and locked up in institutions.

When you lose your reputation at 19, you lose everything.

I think it’s a great shame that America stopped being a republic and became an empire.

I was told that I had very likely been clinically depressed for a long, long time, probably since I was 15, or even 14. It explained, to me at least, a lot of my behaviour...

The food that’s never let me down in life is porridge, especially with milk and maple syrup, which is delicious. Paris isn’t a porridge place, but I can buy it in London when I’m there...

I think I’m really powerful. They’ll smash me, probably.

Maybe the most that you can expect from a relationship that goes bad is to come out of it with a few good songs.

I have always been attracted to the bleaker aspects of life. I love drama.

I went to the big Picasso retrospective at the Tate in the sixties, and I think I went to an Andy Warhol retrospective at the Tate in the sixties, too. My mother was very good...

The only time I ever really consider retiring is when I get fed up with the press. Which is often.

I’ve got a lot of little compulsive problems, and I’ve thought about it a lot. And one of the things I ask myself is, ‘What are the things I can do that won’t hurt me...

Working with David Bowie was very interesting, but I couldn’t surrender to it. I should have let him produce a record for me, but I’m very perverse in some ways. He’s brilliant, but the entourage...

I think you have to really, really want to be a film star.

All I can say is I’ve been lucky with my body. Well done, little body. I praise it and say, ‘You’re very good.’