"Accidents will happen We only hit and run He used to be your victim Now you're not the only one.Accidents will happen We only hit and run I don't want to hear it 'Cause I know what I've done."

"She said that's that. I don't wanna chitter-chat. Turn it down a little bit or turn it down flat. Pump it up when you don't really need it. Pump it up until you can feel it."

"They say you better listen to the voice of reason But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason. So you had better do as you are told. You better listen to the radio."

"So beautiful and fortunate You're the one who hates to love But he's the one who loves to hate."

"I wanna bite the hand that feeds me. I wanna bite that hand so badly. I want to make them wish they'd never seen me."

"Nice girls, not one with a defect, Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct. Red dogs under illegal legs, She looks so good that he gets down and begs.She is watching the detectives. "Ooh, it's so cute." She's watching the detectives. When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. They beat him up until the teardrops start, But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart."

"Alison, I know this world is killing you. Oh, Alison, my aim is true. My aim is true."

"Oh I used to be disgusted and now I try to be amused. But since their wings have got rusted, you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes."

"I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it. And if there's something in it that I can respond to, then there's something that I might be able to use as a composer. There are records of mine that have had smaller audiences and have provoked really drastic responses from people — particularly from critics — who maybe don't have quite enough time to live with the record or accept that a piece has its own integrity."

"These are the sort of things that push you on in music — the curiosity, a passion for new ideas. It's important to keep restoring that, and at the same time, hold on to the core things about music that whenever you pick the simplest form of instrument; guitar or piano, you can find a song that's worthwhile."

"Turn up the TV. No one listening will suspect, even your mother won't detect it, no your father won't know. they think that I've got no respect but everything means less than zero."

"Clowntime is over Time to take over While others just talk and talk Somebody's watching where the others don't walk."

"I've had a lot of different experiences in music over the years. And not everything you do can satisfy everybody's idealised version of you."

"Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music. I've been lucky to listen to lots of different types of music."

"Obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music. I followed The Byrds a lot, and then when they did a country styled record it made me curious to know who these people were that they liked."

"My sense of history in music is much greater than a lot of people's. I listen a lot further back in the whole history of music. It's not just pop music of the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years. I'm listening to stuff from hundreds of years ago as well, because you can learn from everything."

"I had a lot of problems with my name … my first name Declan is really not very well known outside of Ireland, MacManus is a name they could never spell ... if you think about the names of '76, '77 … I got off kind of lightly — with a name you could live with, you know, in time. … I kind of liked the dare of it. Of course we weren't to know that within a month of my first album actually being issued Elvis Presley would die, and it would actually be a talking point. … Let me put it this way — people don't forget you with that name. It's sort of receded as — and this may sound terribly disrespectful and heretical — but as Elvis Presley has receded as a musical force, people make much less of a case about it. Elvis is a sort of cultural figure but there is no direct line between the music of Elvis Presley and the music of today. There is none whatsoever, he's no influence whatsoever, that I can detect, on music made today. Other than people who consciously retro in styling themselves after his ideas. There is no direct impact in the way that you can hear the influence of The Beatles or Stevie Wonder or numerous other people."

"Then I became an altar boy because of the solemn face, but I got thrown out at fourteen for laughing, because the priest used to mumble everything except the church plate takings."

"When the media attention switches away from this story onto the next thing that happens in the world, the circumstances will still be there."

"We stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time. So we didn't visit Memphis until about 1984."

"The people with the most resources are the federal government. If you can invade a country halfway across the world in a matter of days, you can surely come to the aid of your own citizens in a shorter order of time."

"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence."

"WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners."

"Don't tell me you don't know what love is When you're old enough to know better."

"I can't actually play any instrument properly. I can't read music. And here's the New York Times calling me the new George Gershwin. It was so ridiculous, really embarrassing. It was embarrassing to watch these people fall into the trap of their own critical conceits."

"The first song that most people picked up on, particularly in America, of mine, was a ballad, not a rock'n'roll song. It was 'Alison', and that's an R&B ballad. I don't think there's any other way to describe it."

"Notes don't make music until you learn to insert silence between them."

"I don't get Many things right the first time In fact, I am told that a lot Now I know all the wrong turns And stumbles and falls Brought me here."

"Good morning, son In twenty years from now Maybe we'll both sit down and have a few beers And I can tell you 'bout today And how I picked you up and everything changed."

"This morning I wake to be older than you were Fresh white snow for miles Every footstep will be mine."

"You nodded off in my arms watching tv I won’t move you an inch Even though my arm’s asleep."

"So much time and so little to say.."

"You have made me smile again In fact, I might be sore from it. It's been a while I know we've been together many times before I'll see you on the other side."

"Why you gotta act like you know, if you don't know? It's okay if you don't know everything."

"Who knows why some satellites come by and by while others disappear into the sky."

"I feel like a quote out of context, withholding the rest so I can be for you what you want to see."

"Would you look at me I'm crazy But I get the job done Yeah, I'm crazy but I get the job done."

"Now that I have found someone I'm feeling more alone Than I ever have before."

"Last night I was east with them And west within Trying to be for you what you wanna see."

"All this breathing in Never breathing out."

"I refuse to rot like my contemporaries I want to explode in a karaoke supernova I don't wanna grow old Won't you let me, won't you let me explode?"

"There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you While the world is watching All you need is the thing you forgotten And that's to learn to live with what you are."

"When you don't care then You've got nothing to lose And I won't hesitate Because every moment life is slipping away It's okay."

"I stay focused on details It keeps me from feeling the big things But watch the microscope long enough Things that seem still are still changing"

"Tommy: I just wanna see more of you!"

"Buddy Holly and the Crickets had the most influence on the Beatles."

"Hold me close and tell me how you feel Tell me love is real."

"Words of love you whisper soft and true Darling I love you."