“The monarchy is foremost a business, and it's important to them that the British public continue to finance the excessive luxurious lifestyles of the now quite enormous, wasteful and useless 'royal' family. I find it very sad.”
“I mean, death is a serious thing, certainly not to be sneezed at.”
“Long hair is an unpardonable offence which should be punishable by death.”
“I'm not an anarchist, but I believe that people don't want the royal family - the so-called royal family.”
“The Royal family to me are not England, and they are not the flag.”
“My family, although they're very large on both my parents' sides, they don't know much about their family tree. Occasionally, they try to dig, but they can't get very far, and it's baffling. In Dublin, it seems that so many public records were wiped out it's proven to be very difficult, so I know very little.”
“The fire in the belly is essential, otherwise you become Michael Buble - famous and meaningless.”
“I don't want to go on much longer, really. I think that would suggest a lack of imagination. A certain lack of dignity also.”
“What's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning? Wish I hadn't.”
“I think the pop chart today is entirely market-driven. And it has nothing to do with public taste. And it has nothing to do with moving music forward. It's simply a market chart.”
“I've never intended to be controversial, but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.”
“Pop music has progressed.”
“I find that it isn't wise to attempt to judge people on their public persona, and even on the music they make. Because I've met so many people whose music I cannot stand, and they're very nice. At the same time, I've met people whose music I've loved, and they're not the person you've invested all this emotion in.”
“I think there are unseen powers who don't want pop music to be anything other than glorified Madonnas.”
“I've only been to Ireland once, and I felt I would wake up with voices in my head, almost like music, and that if I were a songwriter, I would be very inspired.”
“I didn't really see the British punk movement, if that's what it was, as wildly original, because I had been listening so intently to all the New York music since 1973, really.”
“Racism is beyond common sense and has no place in our society.”
“If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity.”
“I hated the royal wedding.”