There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It`s always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means.

And I saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought, I`m going to learn the saxophone. When I grow up, I`m going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan.

I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way.

[from 1983] I get offered so many bad movies. And they`re all raging queens or transvestites or Martians.

I have nothing to say about the new album. Can I go now? [during an interview about his new album in 1999]

Tony Visconti and I had been wanting to work together again for a few years now. Both of us had fairly large commitments and for a long time we couldn`t see a space in which we could get anything together.

On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.

I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image.

I`m just an individual who doesn`t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I`m working for me.

Frankly, I mean, sometimes the interpretations I`ve seen on some of the songs that I`ve written are a lot more interesting than the input that I put in.

But I`m pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people.

I`m not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I`m living on.

You can neither win nor lose if you don`t run the race.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

I don`t know where I`m going from here, but I promise it won`t be boring.

Asked whether he thinks he is a good actor: "I took you in, didn`t I? I rest my make-up case."

Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano.

But I`ve got to think of myself as the luckiest guy. Robert Johnson only had one album`s worth of work as his legacy. That`s all that life allowed him.

To not be modest about it, you`ll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I`ve worked with have done their best work by far with me.

Strangely, some songs you really don`t want to write.

What is very enlightening for me right now is that I sense that I`m arriving at a place of peace with my writing that I`ve never experienced before.

Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.

When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.

I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I`m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.

I re-invented my image so many times that I`m in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.

When I performed I was thinking, you all look like you should be seeing Phil Collins. Then I thought, hang on, I sound like Phil Collins. So I`ve changed. I`m not comfortable with the mainstream thing. (On his pop sound during the 1980s)

Pixies and Sonic Youth were so important to the eighties.

I believe that I often bring out the best in somebody`s talents.

I`m looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody.

I`m an instant star. Just add water and stir.

I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part.

I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.

When Brian and I came back together this time, we found that we`d gone through very similar psychological states during the course of the `80s.

I`ve never responded well to entrenched negative thinking.

Fab. But, you know, I don`t feel fifty. I feel not a day over forty-nine. It`s incredible. I`m bouncy, I feel bouncy. - on being 50

The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.

I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music.

I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I`m referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man.

However, there`s no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.

It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece.

You would think that a rock star being married to a super-model would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.

I`m always amazed that peole take what I say seriously. I don`t even take what I am seriously.

The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the `60s will forever be etched in my mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter. Also, along with Anthony Newley, he was the first guy I`d heard to sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed. (On Syd Barrett)

Talking about art is like dancing about architecture.

"I rate Morrissey (Steven Patrick Morrissey) as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he`s up there with Bryan Ferry."

"I know about Kylie (Kylie Minogue) and Robbie (Robbie Williams) and `Pop Idol` and stuff like that. You can`t get away from that when you hit the [British] shore, so I know all about the cruise ship entertainment aspect of British pop."

"I`m an instant star; just add water."

"I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human."

"It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be." - from 1992

"Any list of advice I have to offer to a musician always ends with, `If it itches, go and see a doctor.`" [on getting an honorary degree from Boston`s Berklee College of Music]

"It`s true - I am a bisexual. But I can`t deny that I`ve used that fact very well. I suppose it`s the best thing that ever happened to me. Fun, too." - in 1976 interview with Playboy

"I don`t know how many times someone has come up to me and said, `Hey, Lets dance!` I hate dancing. God, it`s stupid."

"I once asked [John] Lennon what he thought of what I do. He said `it`s great, but its just rock and roll with lipstick on`."

"I gave up smoking six months before I had the heart attack - so that was worth it, wasn`t it! I started to give up when my daughter was born because I wouldn`t smoke in the house with her there so I had to go outside. It`s bloody cold in winter in New York, so I just quit."