Maybe Radiohead and R.E.M. Even a group like the National - artists who have crossed over without compromising. It's a special thing.

Just start scribbling. The first draft is never your last draft. Nothing you write is by accident.

I usually tell somebody if a song’s for them. I don’t always tell them if it’s about them.

As long as people are listening that's all that matters.

I'm not David Bowie. Who are we kidding? At the end of the day, I'm the same person I've always been. I'm Don Garvey's son from up the road.

We [Elbow] have had some luck with media syncs in film and on TV. We'd love to do a soundtrack with a really cool director.

The British press isn't as vicious as it used to be, and these days it's sort of cool to care again. Everyone loves an everyman anthem.

"Open Arms" has a lot of unison singing in it. And it works: Grown men will come to our gigs and cry during that one.

Stop giving people the power to control your smile, your worth, your attitude and your day. Don’t give anyone that much power over your life.

And people tended not to bother a woman with a book.

There's a lot to be said for being alone. But you and I know, don't we, Flavia, that being alone and being lonely are not at all the same thing?

Going to prison is like dying with your eyes open.

I was scared, because I knew that in the political arena, you have to satisfy so many different types of people at once, and I wasn't sure that I could speak for everybody and be politically correct.

I think a lot of the misery that people experience comes from that sensation of boundlessness, of infinite possibility.

Being in the studio is okay but sitting in a room by yourself composing is a discipline that takes a certain type of mind set and Tommy has a great gift for that as did the previous guy.

The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read.

And if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.

Sometimes the snow comes down in June, sometimes the sun goes around the moon.