The best of my songs are more than just a joke. There's something else going on - a character, or it's not just a plain joke.

Most of my songs are about insensitivity of some kind.

If we'd had another carefree 70s, I'd have been dead. It was a little too carefree, you know? I don't know how carefree they were for me, I think I was worried then, I can't remember what about.

But if you're doing something, show up everyday, and something good might happen - it's not going to happen if you don't show up.

I'm pretty proud of my film music in general.

God bless the potholes on Memory Lane.

I like science - geography, meteorology, cosmology.

You've got troubles, I've got 'em too. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you. We'll stick together to see it through cause you've got a friend in me.

People become who they are. Even Beethoven became Beethoven.

You keep wondering whether people will see that Barack Obama is a liar and not very bright.

Short people got no reason to live.

Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.

My feet is my only carriage.

Maybe one of the strangest opportunities was I got to ring the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange.

Too much down time makes us miss home.

I voted against Gerald Nabarro in my first general election, but my defiance made no difference. If you had put a Conservative rosette on a mustachioed hamster, it would have been elected.

I don't think you're dying," I said. "I think you've just got a touch of cancer. He smiled. Gallows humor.

What if it should be God's plan to people the world with better and finer material?

Michael Caine is a movie star, but he's also a great actor. I can't say that about every movie star. It's the concentration he has.

There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled.

There's always someone willing to believe malicious rumours.