It’s true, you can never eat a pet you name. And anyway, it would be like a ventriloquist eating his dummy.

I love it when someone insults me. That means that I don’t have to be nice anymore.

I love Simon Cowell, he’s a dear friend.

I think for most of us, our biggest frailties are sexual.

If I fancy a girl, I’ll tell her. I’ll say: ‘You’re fit.’

Since this our first show, I think they’ll see us sweat a lot.

While listening, to things like western swing, for instance, I’d work something out in my head, then play it on my National; not the same song, but one that captured the feeling of the original...

When we recorded our first album sixteen track machines were the thing.

I became very famous, as a teenager, and my name and photo were splashed in all the media. They made me larger than life, so I wanted to live larger than life, and the only...

I have found two Roman sites in the area that I live in.

I just managed to convince my grandmother that it was a worth while that was something to do, you know, and when I did finally get the guitar, it didn’t seem that difficult to me,...

Pull the good out of it and not worry about the drawbacks.

I always liked the magic of poetry but now I’m just starting to see behind the curtain of even the best poets, how they’ve used, tried and tested craft to create the illusion. Wonderful feeling...

At the Isle of Wight, the sound went out and kind of kept on going. And I wasn’t… when I came off stage I was kind of unhappy about how we had played. But now,...

I’ve broken my nose, I’ve broken ribs. You name it. In fact, we just got back from South America, and I fell over a monitor speaker on the stage and almost ended up in the...

I like touring, I like being in the studio, a bit of both. I like to have a bit of time at home as well.

How can you consider flower power outdated? The essence of my lyrics is the desire for peace and harmony. That’s all anyone has ever wanted. How could it become outdated?

It’s very difficult to ignore humanitarian disasters. The royalties from my albums continue to support my charity work.

I have very interesting hobbies like archeology and photography.

They looked great, you know the drawings of the guys playing looked great and bits of string around their necks. So it didn’t seem to be that difficult a thing to do, or that inaccessible.

The whole business is built on ego, vanity, self-satisfaction, and it’s total crap to pretend it’s not.

My faith, inasmuch as I have any, is more like a kind of Joseph Campbell thing, and even that frequently finds itself tested to oblivion in siren waters.

I’m proud of my kids, they are doing what they want to do.

I love Gibsons, and Nationals, too. There’s something magical about them.

No, I mean we’d all definitely involved in the music business someway or another, because we’re all living with it, and in it, and also we’ve got all sorts of things we would like to...

At last a dream come true. The Instrument of Instruments.

Artists are never complete people. But if it’s art that completes them, then what is taken away?

It doesn’t matter about money; having it, not having it. Or having clothes, or not having them. You’re still left alone with yourself in the end.

I didn’t think before that I’d done enough to justify publishing an autobiography but after 40 years in show business I’m now ready to tell my story.

I think the media is a real demon.

I have a rude thought every three seconds!

The best thing about this band is I’m the leader!

We didn’t have a lot of success with that first album but we sold a few thousand and we’d done a John Peel session which got some plays.

When you start out without a record nobody knows you, but if you have a record it’s a lot easier.

Man is created to be God’s deputy on earth and it is important to realize the obligation to rid ourselves of all illusions and to make our lives a preparation for the next life.

My first record I owned was by Les Paul.

I mean, it didn’t matter to me that there were people, it didn’t matter that I was shy Just the sound was so captivating that it helped me to get rid of those inhibitions.

I know I always worked hard on making sure we came out with the best possible product and of course we were working with four other people, you have to balance that as well.

I didn’t really escape that gravity until I moved 300 miles south to go to college at 18, where authorship no longer seemed something liable to induce vengeful punishment.

Find a good teacher, as I found for my sons. I feel the worst thing you can do is to try and teach your own children yourself, because there is a natural rebellion that occurs.

After a while, though, the group just wasn’t a good vehicle for the songs I’d written.

I mean basically I was the newest member in a way, because the band was formed for 6 months with a few other bass players when I came along.

I can’t moan about any of it. I had a great time in the goldfish bowl.

I found a religion that blended scientific reason with spiritual reality in a unifying faith far removed from the headlines of violence, destruction and terrorism.

I was listening to music long before rock ‘n roll.

This moment in time, on this tour, you know, I’m discovering a lot of new things. And to be 45 and doing that, it’s a mixture of pleasure and pain, I can assure you.

You’ll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.

Now I’m having to live with sales of around 50,000 per album – but I’m pretty content with my place in the general scheme of things, even if it’s meant I don’t drive a fancy...

I’ve gone through hell and back.

I was into playing American music, especially the blues.