"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'm not an anarchist, but I believe that people don't want the royal family - the so-called royal family."

"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."

"Racism is beyond common sense and has no place in our society."

"Art is the collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."

"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."

"Science and art, or by the same token, poetry and prose differ from one another like a journey and an excursion. The purpose of the journey is its goal, the purpose of an excursion is the process."

"I'm not interested in pop art."