If you ever want to know why I'm not on a record label, look at 'The X Factor!' Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions.

I love boating - not flash, 'noisy go fast' nonsense, but the general relaxation of it. My wife and I love to get in our little Wellcraft and go as far out to sea as we can, hopefully beyond land. That is the best thing you can ever do. It clears your psyche.

Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.

I never take any commitment lightly, and I certainly don't take my wife lightly. I never did and I never will. That's permanent. That's true love.

I love consumerism, TV culture, shopping malls. There's nothing I'd ever buy, but I like being there. It's wacky.

These days young kids don't have any place to form an epic adventure. It's more often in front of the TV screen or a laptop. That's very hard on them. They're being taught daily unsocial skills. Facebook is an unsocial skill. It's so sad.

Here's how I understand music. If you can play the same bunch of noise twice, it's music. To go beyond that is supercilious and pontificating.

You know, I've been to some superstars' houses, and I've been really disgusted when I see their platinum discs hanging in the toilet. They're just there on the walls glaring at you when you're trying to be occupied with other things.

Live music is healthy.

Periods of inactivity, I don't know such things. I'm consistently writing. My life is busy. It always is. There are hardly any moments for self-indulgent laziness.

Over the years, during television interviews, whenever the host or the reviewer or whoever gets cynical and nasty with me, I will behave accordingly. I will defend myself.

I don't have huge bank accounts. I'd love one. But it wouldn't change much. I don't have any expensive habits. I'm not a car collector or any of that nonsense. But I'd love to be incredibly wealthy for no reason at all.

I've created several musical trends, really. That's not because I'm so far out and fabulous. It's because most bands have no ideas of their own. They're so desperate they'll grab at any old straw.

As a young concert-going person, I was never enamoured with celebrities who would walk out to feature in certain songs and then walk off.

Freedom isn't to do what you want at somebody else's expense.

Records were vitally important to the development of music and of all music cultures. With that being pushed by the wayside, I can't see an iPod uniting us. In fact it separates us, the streets are full of people bumping into lamp posts, listening to their own little universe, and there's no sharing in that.

I've done no harm to no one. In fact, I think I've improved the world.

I'm sort of of the belief that people kill themselves from the inside out. When they're unhappy with what they're doing, or not achieving things - when your focus is off-kilter. The thing that keeps me ticking is my values. And I maintain them, because they're worthy. I like to wake up and feel I've done no wrong. I like that feeling.

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

I keep falling off the edge of the stage because I can't see it. I can't see my wrinkles in the mirror either, though.

I love American ski resorts because they're open to everyone, are not incredibly expensive. They're not snobby and you can have fun all day long on the most excellent mountains.

You'd have to be daft as a brush to say you didn't like Pink Floyd.

It's a repressive society where you can't be horrible, I'm not horrible, they made me horrible, I'm just honest.

The so-called alleged 'art' of the video - well, the video has killed the radio star, but the video star killed the live musician, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It's no good being nice and young and naive. There's no good in that at all. You've got to do it all yourself, and you've gotta learn quick. And you can't look for sympathy either.

I've never done anything deliberately; I just speak my mind, and that is what I consistently do and will always do in any way shape or form that I can.

I showed what I can do with butter, right? Eighty-five percent increase in sales. I'm very proud of them Country Life ads. They were funny and clever and classy like the Toblerone ads I grew up with.

I don't believe in anarchy, because it will ultimately amount to the power of the bully, with weapons. Gandhi is my life's inspiration: passive resistance. I don't want to live in the Thunderdome with Mad Max.

I've never said I'm a communist.

There are some Rolling Stones songs that are just stunners.

I don't think there's any such thing as rock n' roll anymore - it's an amalgamation of business interests.

The real color of my hair is mouse. I always want to be ginger, which I was when I was born, or blond, because I live in L.A., and I want to look like I go surfing without any physical effort.

I love books, and all the best ones are people analysing their own emotions. You can learn from that.

I like America's diversity and its landscapes.

When you grew up like me and my four brothers, you end up feeling somewhat inadequate, like somehow you don't count. I was very ill as a child and in and out of hospital. That sort of alienates you, and in my songs I put that to good use.

Punk was never about one particular clean-cut imagery... it's about many, many individuals coming very loosely together.

I have one major problem with the internet: It's full of liars. There doesn't seem to be any way to answer to people lying about you.

My biggest fear is mindlessly and stupidly repeating myself.

Americans being upright and forthright and honest and true to themselves is a very hard concept.

If you can sort out why you feel the way you do then you might be in better shape to meet your maker.

No matter what you experience in life, it incorporates political tendencies, and in so many ways.

I never thought of Green Day as a punk band. Just bubblegum, really.

I don't like the monikers, and I don't like being pigeonholed. You know, I'm a human being.

There are no limits to where our brains can take us. We are, if there be a God, God's gracious creation.

Obama's dense as a doorbell; not much going on up there - it's a wooden top.

I love discordancy. It makes people ill at ease and wakes up a part of their brain that's normally asleep.

You'll find that empty vessels make the most sound.

Situationism is a ludicrous proposition. It's ill-formed and it's perfectly French. That Gallic disposition towards common sense. L'Anarchie!

Don't accept the old order. Get rid of it.

I'm not great at dealing with death, I have to say. I find death very hard: my mum, my dad, Sid Vicious. I'm not a monster; I feel it and it scares me. One death at a time, please, is all my heart will bear.