I never imagined I’d be a solo artist. And now I couldn’t imagine being part of a group.
I don’t even know if I exist offstage.
I don’t want to get too involved in marketing budgets, online promotions and download set-ups because it would be a bit like Gertrude Stein mapping out a TV campaign. I want to sing. I want visibility. I am essentially Al Martino, not Seymour Stein.
Each year of life brings us nearer to our decline, but I will continue to seek a listener until I’m dead in a ditch.
The Smiths was an incredibly personal thing to me. It was like launching your own diary to music.
That’s why I do this music business thing, it’s communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.
I think we were all initially swept along with the Obama win, but he’s proven to be simply a set of teeth, and useless in every other regard.
When I’m lying in my bed I think about life and I think about death and neither one particularly appeals to me.
Whether it be Beyonce or Justin Bieber, we see singers who have absolutely nothing to offer anyone as they walk off stage clutching three Grammys in each hand.
Any criticism of Thatcher throws a dangerously absurd light on the entire machinery of British politics. Thatcher’s name must be protected, not because of all the wrong that she had done, but because the people around her allowed her to do it.
All of us, ultimately, we’re not that interesting, when it comes down to it.
I’m not an anarchist, but I believe that people don’t want the royal family – the so-called royal family.
I always seem to be singing against the grain.
The word ‘indie’ is meaningless now. It’s so over-used that people think it simply means green hair.
The Queen is the ultimate dictator.
Those Catholics, they really nab you when you’re young.
It’s always nice to receive a compliment.
If you love animals, obviously it doesn’t make sense to hurt them.
War, I thought, was the most negative aspect of male heterosexuality. If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men.
I first bought a Buffy Sainte-Marie record when I was 12, and her music has always remained with me. In the 1960s, as a political activist, Buffy’s lyrics were fearless, and I’m very grateful for all the risks that she took.