"These days, rock 'n' roll is much more about rock than about roll. I don't do rock. But I'm interested in that roll part, because that's the funny little bit that makes it hip."

"All those years we'd spent learning these chops, and all those gigs in Germany where you'd play all night, and along comes punk. It has nothing to do with that. A lot of people went out of business."

"If anyone comes along, I'm more than happy to welcome them, but I'm not interested in world domination."

"As long as my body holds out, I'll be grooving when I'm 70, and not some sort of horrible spectacle."

"If a hit came along, I wouldn't be unhappy about that. But I'm a bit too old for that now-doing videos and all those types of TV shows. I've kind of done all that, in the '70s."

"They tell me I produced songs. I just stood in the back, wore a good suit and said, Yeah, that's happening."

"I work very hard on getting the songs as direct and examined as I can before I go in the studio."

"I'm playing to the sort of people who like the same records."

"The world is full of musicians who can play great, and you wouldn't cross the road to see them. It's people who have this indefinable attitude that are the good ones."

"I like being a big fish in a small pond. I'm not interested in a huge audience because it brings headaches."

"Going to Nashville to meet the in-laws was the first time when I'd been in America and not been seen as some sort of eccentric character with a cute accent."

"The number of contemporary artists who appeal to me is infinitesimal."

"When punk rock came along, the one thing you were not supposed to be was musical."

"You've got to really know your song, inside and out."

"Elvis Costello had a brand new bag. He was a musician, but he knew all about the attitude part of it."

"I suppose I was waiting until I was old enough to have some sort of experience to sing about. When you're young, it's hard to sing the blues. Nobody believes you."

"Be a military flier or be in a band; those were the two hippest things I could imagine."