As a musician, I don't wanna put out political soundbites.

I want to entertain and inspire.

I've always felt like an outsider in this industry, but that sense of community - that sense of belonging with your fans - it's an amazing feeling, and it's really inspiring.

The music industry wants safe rock stars, people who are totally homogenised.

It doesn't matter how fashion or politics changes; you'll never change a classic song.

A classic song is timeless. You'll never outlive a classic song. I'll never put The Beatles 'In My Life' on one day and say, 'That doesnt move me any more.'

'Bitter Sweet Symphony' is one of the greatest pieces of modern art created by anyone. I'm not blowing my own trumpet here.

'Bitter Sweet Symphony' is one of the biggest hip-hop records of all time once you actually analyse it.

If Sinatra had packed in his style because there were a load of counterfeit Sinatras about, he would have stopped singing in 1956 or whatever.

There's always one character, I think, in every town who's the obsessive who steals money to go and buy records.

I think I've learned a lot on the vocal side of things.

I don't ever want to get to the point where I don't think about death! You've got to swim in it, learn from it - embrace it!

If the way I see the world is mad, then fantastic.

I love my cracked eyes.

They called me 'Mr. Average' in school.

My thing is, I've yet to meet a well person. The spectrum is unbelievably wide, the triggers for depression and manic depression.

Of course, fatherhood fundamentally changes a lot of your life, but it enriches you, too.

We'd lie on the floor, turn the lights out, put two speakers on either side of our ears, and try to blow our minds with music. I know that I want to make a record that does that yet a record that, if it was played on the radio at twelve in the afternoon, the guy making the wall - the guy cleaning the motorway - he's got a melody to hang on.

I'm totally up for experimental music. I'm up for music that they don't play on the radio, and I take in all of it. But my thing, the thing that comes most natural to me, is making the stuff that has a melody; it has a soul to it, yet it's head music.

I lost a good friend a few years ago, and it happened quite suddenly. Any event like that leaves you with questions. Would a phone call have made a difference? Did the person know that you were there for them?

If you start shaping everything you do trying to be in step with whatever is going on in the world, you're often out of step by the time people hear it. It's a bit like fashion.

Sometimes, you're before your time with ideas, and you have to accept that you can't know.

Not many people come out of a big band as the lead singer/songwriter and making a record, and all of a sudden we're all happily sailing at the same pace as we were before.

With 'Break The Night,' each verse is saying, 'Nothing's going right today; nothing ever does.' It's about that kind of repetition, it's that kind of mantra you can get in your mind when you're depressed or down, when it's become like a hamster on a wheel - it's very difficult to break.

I've got kids now; it changes you radically.

I've never written a 'Revolver' or a 'Pet Sounds.'

You can radically change a person's life with a tune. I don't think people truly understand or appreciate how powerful that is.

I think I was born to be a songwriter.

I'm not driven by fame or success. I'm quite a shy, introverted person, and I could easily melt away into the background.

Creativity, for me, is almost like therapy; my songs take you into the underbelly of my mind, and there's some dark stuff in there.

Life is about unforgettable and transcendent moments, isn't it? The point of music is to get the moment.

Criticism is beyond your control and is a collective group of people deciding things about you that may or may not be true. Some critics look for more when there's no need to. They have a dotto-dot picture of me they are intent on filling in.

You can find the greatest sound of all time, and someone's going to squash it down to a tiny little earphone anyway or play it through the computer, and that is a big thing people have to think about now.

What happened in the '70s was albums and concerts began making a hell of a lot more money, and then the suits got involved.

I've got a letter from the Dalai Lama at home.

I'd definitely say I'm a depressive, someone who suffers from depression.

Without music and creativity, I'd need other forms of therapy. But for me, the life process is the process of healing yourself. 'Break the Night' is about offering hope to people, about breaking through the darkness.

When I read about Gram Parsons' dream of this Cosmic American Music when I was in my late teens, that stuck with me: that idea, that ambition, to draw off the roots of music but take it somewhere fresh.

Really, I listen to more hip hop probably than most other things. That's where I get a lot of my influence from because it's so eclectic. So that's what I love.

You have to build yourself up a bit. You have to believe in yourself, because not that many other people will, you know?

We're the most talented musical island ever.

I was always going to be vulnerable when I left the Verve. It was a hardening experience for me. People saw me stripped down and decided to have their shot. I suppose they wanted to take me down a peg.

I am a family man, and I have children.

I'm a strong person, but every man has his limits.

The most sacred thing you can get is time. That's all people want on their death bed; that's what it's all about.

The greatest footballers take the sport into the world of art, of performance.

There's lots of people I'd love to work with.

The mad thing is, most of my life, when I'm not in a dark mood, it's been humour that's got me through. The only way to get through this business is by laughing.

I am so lucky that I have been part of and written songs that will always resonate no matter how old they get.

Ed Sheeran? I don't like the fact he gets a lot of stick. I like the fact he works hard, and God knows how much money he pays to the tax man each year.