Singer Songwriters From England

"Comedy should never be over-analysed. It's either funny or it isn't. There's a subtle difference between those who say funny things and those who say things funny."

"Laughter is the greatest music in the world and audiences come to my shows to escape the cares of life. They don't want to be embarrassed or insulted. They want to laugh and so do I - which is probably why it works."

"Television is like a great monster, eating your gags as fast as you say them."

"(on her marriage to Andrew Lloyd Webber) It was such a creative time. Everything was happening very fast. He was writing, I was singing. He was inspired, and I was inspired. I didn't really have time to think about it. I didn't really have time to read things about it, either. I got a sense of things, which made me quite nervous at times. But, no, we were running all the time then, doing things. It was fun, but also a lot of pressure."

"I don't know who my audience is. People have said there is an integrity about me, and I think there is. I don't try to follow a trend. I have my own little path, and although I delve into things, I stay with what I am. I'm quite natural with it. Maybe people feel comfortable with that and they trust it, so they buy it. They'll come and see me in concert. I think I always do a good job in that area."

"Sometimes they're grey/green, sometimes they're grey, and some people think they are blue. So, I can't tell you!"

"When I sing, I close my eyes. If I see a feather, everything is fine. Without this image in my mind, the sound is not 'truthful' enough and I must begin again. I have to. I first had this feeling, this instinct with Phantom of the Opera and since then have always listened to it."

"It really is strange the way I work for success but when I get there cannot appreciate it. I enjoy the road to success and the struggle — even when it gets hard. But when I achieve my goal, I feel suddenly and totally stressed. Only in retrospect can I begin to enjoy the moment and admit just how great it was."

"The opera world was shocked! But the image is very classical. It's taken from Botticelli's portrait of Venus, who's standing in a seashell with her hair covering her body. It's very sensual. It represents the vulnerable side of me. Although I'm not wearing any clothes, it comes across very well."

"In the past, I always used to be looking for answers. Today, I know there are only questions. So I just live."

"You do have to be fairly selfish when you have a gift. You cannot afford to let too many outside things get in the way."

"I'm a very talented person, I know that. I'm a very gifted person. I have a lot of imagination. I work hard. I feel I have the attributes within myself to have achieved what I have done. There has been no luck, no miracles. The only miracle has been this voice."

"From Bradford Yorkshire to Bristol Temple Meads you don't have to change your underwear but you have to change at Leeds"

"This winter I hope you get a splinter if you make a toboggan and it is a mahog'un"

"My grandmother used to say before you moan about the muck on someone else's glasses make sure you're not on about the muck on your own her glasses were filthy"

"In the beginning was the dog the real name of Jehovah is Rover Adam's rib is buried in the garden"

"Cuz I have so much love, for you, do with it what you will; and I have nothing more to prove, do with it what you will, say it again; say it again."

"Just like the moon, I'll step aside, and let your sun shine while I follow behind..."

"Rick walked away right at the height. People look at other artists like Simply Red and say they were big, but he out-sold them two to one."

"I took the first few years off and spent them recovering. I didn't even know what day it was or who I was anymore, so I made a conscious effort to end it all. I thought my days were numbered as a pop star anyway. My girlfriend and I had a daughter, I had some money, so I just took the time off to chill out."

"I didn't like the music business and I didn't like me. There's an element of falseness about the whole thing. Even things like doing an interview. It's not as though we just met in the pub and are having a chat — it's part of a process. If you do it all day, every day for years, you end up thinking: 'Who the hell am I?' I was lucky enough to make some money, enough to let me kick back. It was a great experience and it was nice to have a couple of No.1s but the best thing about it was that the money I made allowed me to have freedom and choice in my life."

"I did enjoy it," he says. "But it was very, very weird. You can blab on about seeing the other side of fame, but it doesn't mean shit until it happens to you. It wasn't so much the going on TV, or going to award ceremonies, or having a camera focused on your face. It was being famous in the supermarket, being famous in a restaurant. Fame is not just about being able to get out of a limo in Leicester Square, it's about trying to get into your house when there are eight photographers outside. When you think about being famous, you don't think about all that stuff. You think about the glamour. I wanted to turn the tap off when I'd done my job. But you can't."

"I had my 15 minutes of being the new boy of pop, like lots of people before and after me. Overnight, everyone starts treating you differently, and perceives you differently."

"You got Rick Roll'd!"

"Well, do you remember Rick Astley? He had a big fat hit, it was ghastly He said, I'm never gonna give you up or let you down Well, I'm here to tell you that dick's a clown"

"In my heart a place, A most special place, And it's all for you, You're my girl, you're my, angel, The will's the same for us, Honey they can't be wrong, Cause everybody knows it was hard to break the sorrow, Then you came along"

"Today, I give it, all to you, On this day we recall the memories, Of what we're goin' through,"

"Fearless people, Careless needle. Harsh words spoken, And lives are broken."

"Crossing that bridge, With lessons I've learned. Playing with fire, And not getting burned. I may not know what you're going through. But time is the space, Between me and you. Life carries on... it goes on."

"Then the rainstorm came over me And I felt my spirit break I had lost all of my belief, you see And realized my mistake But time threw a prayer to me And all around me became still I need love, love's divine Please forgive me, now I see that I've been blind Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name."

"Did you know, That when it snows, My eyes become large and The light that you shine can be seen."

"Ooh, the more I get of you, Stranger it feels, yeah. And now that your rose is in bloom, A light hits the gloom on the grave."

"There is so much a man can tell you, So much he can say. You remain, my power, my pleasure, my pain"

"Oh darlin... In a sky full of people, only some want to fly, Isn't that crazy? In a world full of people, only some want to fly, Isn't that crazy?"

"Myself and the people close to me are all part of a social system, and we were being conditioned to accept the status quo. But on this album, I'm saying it's time for us to take charge. We can change it. We can take control of our emotional system and be happy. My point is don't just sit there and allow life to happen to you. Go out and take charge if you want change, but it begins closer to home."

"A man decides after seventy years, That what he goes there for, is to unlock the door. While those around him criticize and sleep... And through a fractal on a breaking wall, I see you my friend, and touch your face again. Miracles will happen as we trip.But we're never gonna survive, unless... We get a little crazy"

"Now that your rose is in bloom, A light hits the gloom on the grave, I've been kissed by a rose on the grave."

"There's nothing better than going out there and performing and making that connection with audiences. Even after all this time I get the biggest buzz from that."

"I've heard everything — that they were the result of ancient ritual induction into childhood that involved wrestling a wild boar, that I was viciously attacked by a gang. Someone even wrote that I was abducted by aliens who left me with a mark. You know, I really don't care. People can believe whatever they want to believe."

"There were signs in England that the only way for me was down. The media turned against me. I was given a hard time because my outlook wasn't one of pure debauchery. I was a sensitive male and I was singing about spirituality; I didn't choose the loutish Oasis approach to my profession. Britpop was just building up at the time and my attitude somehow counted against me."

"Family, my wife and children, that's my reason for being. Everything is done with them in mind, so perhaps that's the reason this new album is up-tempo. It does feel like a celebration of life. I am finally in a content and happy place to the point where I feel like I need to sing about it. It's made me want to address things that are close to home."

"Nobody is safe. Deviate by a hair's-breadth from normal behaviour in her presence and you become a specimen in her collection. She has the ear to record every nuance of vour talk and the tongue to reproduce it."

"George - don't do that."

"If I should go before the rest of you, Break not a flower, nor inscribe a stone, Nor, when I’m gone, speak in a Sunday voice, But be the usual selves That I have known."

"I don't understand Ethel. I don't, I don't really. She's one of my very best friends, Just about the best, nearly. She's an awfully nice girl, Ethel is, Dainty and refined, I mean she'd never do or say Anything unkind. But get her inside a stadium And she seems to go out of her mind."

"I was allowed to slave for them For ever and evermore. Oh, I was allowed to fetch and carry For my Three Brothers, Jim and Bob and Harry."

"Stately as a galleon, I sail across the floor, Doing the military two-step, as in the days of yore."

"They look quite promising in the shop, and not entirely without hope when I get them back into my wardrobe. But then, when I put them on they tend to deteriorate with a very strange rapidity and one feels sorry for them."

"Progress everywhere today does seem to come so very heavily disguised as chaos."

"Son, son, I admire your sincerity. Always be sincere - whether you mean it or not."