The language that we use now impacts on the ability to vote, it impacts on the marketplace; instead of making things clear, it makes it more confusing. I think we need to stop using neutral language and speak in straighter terms. So when you agree to something, you actually get what you agreed to in the first place.

The problem is that music is selfish in that you need to make it for yourself, so that you can give it away, and those two things don't jive. I needed to find the right reason to play that had the magic and mystery and excitement that made me want to play in the first place.

Looking for equality everywhere is a huge mistake because equals are terrible and boring. But a sense of fairness and justice is a totally different thing and a much more complex thing.

I got into guitar because no parent will buy their eight-year-old kid drums unless they're divorced and trying to get back at their wife. You know what I mean?

The biggest mistake is to assume that another writer's successful strategy will work for you, too. Publishers' marketers - and even freelance publicists who cost mega bucks - tend to do the same basic things for all books.

I was fantasising about my own death, I started thinking what my funeral would be like and what music would be played, I was at that level of insanity.

I'm not supposed to be able to speak clearly, and decipher what's going on in the media. I'm supposed to be the typical amateur who's 22 and scared to death and can't believe he won the Olympics.

I sit with people who are dying. I'm one of those unusual types that enjoys being with someone when they're dying because I know I am going to be in the presence of Truth.