I remember talking to an architect and he said 'I am making so much money I don't know what to do' - I am in a business where you don't have an idea from one end of the year to the next how what you are going to earn and it is not like a salary that you can guarantee.

I have always had a long term view on records as I want them to be books and not magazines and newspapers that you discard very quickly.

Songs don't just suddenly arrive like a taxi you have to work on them and you have to put a lot of time and energy and self discipline into creating that kind of thing.

As a song-writer I have always written with one instrument - either guitar or piano - because I believe that if a song is strong enough to be performed completely stripped down then it is a good one to go on and record.

If you look at the big rock hits I've had - 'High on Emotion,' for example - the songs I write have to have a real meaning. There has to be depth.

In America, if you say 'Chris de Burgh,' they won't have a clue, but they all know 'Lady in Red.'

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have never subscribed to public confessionals.

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

I'm emotionally untouchable.

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 know every side of the industry after all these years.

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

People just love stories.

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

Canada has a great tradition of supporting songwriters.

I am much loved.

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