I am happy in my own skin.

I can fix dishwashers. I was brought up in a castle with no money and lots of imagination. I learnt a lot about plumbing at an early age.

When I'm home I love to get the wellies on and take the dog for a walk.

I've been travelling all my life.

I always bring divining rods when I'm on tour because you can change energy streams by moving furniture around your hotel room.

I spent a lot of my childhood saying goodbye because I went to boarding school. I didn't resent my parents for sending me there so young as I understood the limitations of the education system in Africa, where we lived at the time.

I studied French and English literature because I liked it.

I thought I would be an overnight star when I had a hit record in Brazil with my first album - but things didn't work out quite like that.

When you're a solo artist and you're not doing well, it can be pretty tough. So when success does come, it feels like you've earned it.

My house is a very calm and beautiful place and is full of positive energy.

You get pigeonholed. It's a kind of safety device for people who don't really want to look any further outside of the box, but I'm actually impregnable as far as what people say about me.

My father fought behind Japanese lines in the second world war and it traumatised him. Everybody who knew him from before said he was the life and soul of the party - fun to be with - but after the war he was different.

There wasn't a lot of physical tenderness with my parents. There was plenty of love but we weren't into the hugging thing, which now I've totally reversed with my family to the point where it probably drives them crazy.

I'd been to South Africa during the Seventies, when it was definitely not kosher to go there. I felt that the best thing to do was to be a missionary and tell people what was going on in their own country because censorship was so dreadful.

I've 300 other songs, but 'Lady In Red' is just one of them. Funnily enough, in America, it is massive, but most people wouldn't have a clue who Chris de Burgh was.

You know you get a tube of toothpaste... such a bloody con. You squeeze and squeeze and nothing more comes out? Well, take a pair of scissors and cut it about an inch and a half from the bottom and it's absolutely packed with stuff! I do that, then cut off the top bit, so I can stick that back on and it doesn't dry out!

I'm not a fool with my money. I've known what it's like to be poor and I don't splash it around stupidly.

I went to Bethlehem in Christmas 2015 to do a television show for German TV and we filmed in the Church of the Nativity, literally above the place where Christ was born.

I remember years ago hearing a top band talking about a song of theirs that was a monster hit and they were really dissing it, saying that they hoped they'd never have to play it again. I thought: 'That's not right. If people love a song, play it.'

I will never forget seeing Alien when it came out in 1979. I'm not that big a fan of horror, but I remember the slow build, the claustrophobic feeling on the spacecraft, this tremendous sense of impending doom.

I don't spend much on myself. It's a bit of a joke within the family.

I believe that music is an international language and deserves to be heard all over the world.

I am a humanist.

We are not politically naive.

It's critically important to have family around me, and some of my happiest moments are when I'm just with my family.

Being hydrated is a key thing for a singer, especially if you're spending three hours on stage five nights a week, and wine dehydrates me faster than beer.

I read about wine every day.

My dad had a dream of living in an Irish castle, even when we were in Argentina, and in 1960 he found a place without any heat or running water. We had no money, so it was tough.

The first confrontation I had with an Aussie wine was a well-known Cabernet/Shiraz and it reminded me of boiled sweets. I find a lot of Australian wines unsubtle.

I know what it's like to go to a concert, wait to hear your favourite song - and then they don't play it!

I have found myself able to cure people with my hands.

I met someone in the West Indies who was not able to walk. I put my hands on him and he was able to get up. I know the tabloids will get excited by this so I try to play it down.

I love myself. I'm not saying this in a narcissistic way.

I am much loved.

Canada has a great tradition of supporting songwriters.

I think it's the Canadian spirit that encourages people to dream a little bit.

People just love stories.

Love songs are the most complex to write because everyone knows about it.

I know every side of the industry after all these years.

I developed my armour at prep school. I was the smallest guy in the school. I got bullied a lot. So I developed broad shoulders.

I'm emotionally untouchable.

The role of Miss World is one that my daughter has fulfilled to the best of her abilities.

I have never subscribed to public confessionals.

I always have to have what I believe are the pillars of an album - songs which I can go back to and admire personally as a piece of writing.

You get tarred with the brush of 'Lady in Red.' I play Russia or China or places all over the world. They don't even speak English but they know the words. You get a big song like that, and people love it or hate it. And if they don't like it, they don't like anything at all by the artist.

Singing in a restaurant is very demeaning and humiliating but you learn from it, because people aren't there for a show, they're there to eat.

People always try to pigeonhole you, especially the media, who are happy if they can label you as a particular kind of artist. But the spectrum of songs I write and record is vast.

I know it sounds glamorous, but it was bloody cold growing up in a castle.

You know what happens if I walk out on the stage in Montreal? They stand up and they cheer for three or four minutes. It just brings tears to your eyes, because it's a love affair.

I would hate to go out as a legend on tour just playing all the back hits.