I love being on my bike, but I don't consider that a sport: it's too pleasant.

If you want to know why the coast is such an inspirational place, ask Herman Melville, Jack London, Nordhoff and Hall, Robert Louis Stevenson or Joseph Conrad. It's a glimpse of eternity. It invites rumination, the relentless whisper of the tide against the shore.

Lyrics became important for a while in the late Seventies. Patti Smith was a poet and a rock star, as much one as the other, the distinctions were a bit blurred and then you get swept up in it. Punk poet, it's a good enough term.

The only casual item I own is a Levi's jacket.

I don't think 'Citizen Kane' stands more than one watch. Power corrupts. Who didn't know that?

All the best musicians started out in church; Jesus invented rock 'n' roll.

To make the hips the focal point of a pair of trousers is, to me, a fashion mistake.

The greatest threat to any artist is surrounding themselves with people who love everything they do.

Well, I've obviously been a great source of inspiration to the academic population of Salford! They're citing me as a major contribution to their upward trajectory!