"I see songs not as a commodity used up when the album goes off the charts, which is often the case with pop songs. I see them as a body of work. Life should be breathed into them."

"I exist in a state of almost perpetual hysteria."

"One of the rewards of success is freedom, the ability to do whatever you like."

"I can't really change my life to accommodate people who are jealous. I don't see why I should."

"Melancholy is no bad thing."

"I don't like singing before noon."

"Peter Townshend shows us it's all right to grow up. There is dignity after rock'n'roll."

"I do my best work when I am in pain and turmoil."

"I try to give the media as many confusing images as I can to retain my freedom. What's real is for my children and the people I live with."

"I hate most of what constitutes rock music, which is basically middle-aged crap."

"I miss England. I miss the weather. I've spent moss of the last 25 years on tour. I'm ready to come home."

"I have been through various fitness regimes. I used to run about five miles a day and I did aerobics for a while."

"I made two movies before The Police had a hit record: I did Quadrophenia and a film called Radio On."

"Yoga is almost like music in a way; there's no end to it."

"It's never easy to write a song. It's the most difficult thing I do."

"The Super Bowl is Americana at its most kitsch and fun."

"If you make your living writing, and you can't write anything, it's over. It's very frightening."

"The deeper you get into Yoga you realize it is a spiritual practice. It's a journey I'm making. I'm heading that way."

"I'm not much of a family man. I'm just not that into it. I love kids, I adore them, but I don't want to live my life for them."

"It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile."

"Love is stronger than justice."

"The more irrational of us are worried about the millennium ending - as if a date would really matter."

"That sense of failure, I don't know where people put it who don't write songs and aren't able to emote physically. It must go somewhere."

"I see music as one language. If one musical form eats its own tail, it dies. So it needs to be a mongrel, it needs to be hybridised."

"I'm very much afraid of being mad - that's my one fear."

"I want to get old gracefully. I want to have good posture, I want to be healthy and be an example to my children."

"I think there's room for both private exploration and group work in Yoga."

"Success always necessitates a degree of ruthlessness. Given the choice of friendship or success, I'd probably choose success."

"There's no religion but sex and music."

"I was recruited to teach 9-year-olds. I taught for two years."

"The acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life, in living life happily, as it should be lived. Living for the moment."

"It has very little to do with my work, but if your image is not sexy enough, people won't listen. It's part of the game."

"I don't need to manufacture trauma in my life to be creative. I have a big enough reservoir of sadness or emotional trauma to last me."

"I write the music, produce it and the band plays within the parameters that I set."

"I think love has something to do with allowing a person you claim to love to enter a larger arena than the one you create for them."

"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around."

"I was famous overnight. I went from nowhere to being really big."

"I've never lost perspective on who I am. Well, maybe briefly, but generally I'm pretty balanced."

"I don't understand American football at all. It looks like all-in wrestling with crash helmets."

"The logical process will often be the safe one. I tend, when I'm given that choice, to go the way that's not safe."

"I've spent a bit of time with the Prince of Wales, who I respect greatly. I'd give two cheers for the Monarchy."

"An uncle of mine emigrated to Canada and couldn't take his guitar with him. When I found it in the attic, I'd found a friend for life."

"I've only paid lip service to a spiritual life."

"I realize that nothing's as it seems."

"I have a big problem with piped music. I like either silence or to listen to it properly."

"My friends are Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and we're singing about mortality, getting older. It's an interesting time."

"I think you can get the wrong impression about me from my work and think I'm always a bit down. I'm not that way at all. I'm fun-loving."

"Like Yoga, the spiritual life is actually very difficult."

"I really wanted to work with David Lynch. I was a big fan of The Elephant Man and Eraserhead."

"I feel this music has nurtured me as I've been immersing myself in it. I've felt supported by it."