"I don't do many interviews."
"The system is very well regulated in L.A. It's designed to disconnect you from whatever your idea of yourself is. If you're among devils and they realise you're not a devil like they are, there's gonna be some great discomfort."
"My 12 years in Los Angeles were hell! But I was sent to study hell and to learn as much from it as I could because there is no other place like hell for a full and complete education."
"I don't have to worry about what the average record company person thinks because I am the record company person."
"One thing about Italians is you can't let them in your head. They're inquisitive. The English and Germans are a dog tribe; the Italians are cats. They're very helpful, but it's in their own rhythm, their own way, and it can drive you crazy."
"All artists are socialists until they see another artist with a bigger house than theirs."
"I can only say this with all relative humility: I saw myself as a Beatle."
"I came around at a time when myself, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna and George Michael, we were considered kind of dangerous."
"Terence Trent D'Arby was dead. He watched his suffering as he died a noble death. After intense pain I meditated for a new spirit, a new will, a new identity."
"I was aware of all the artists who make good debut records over the years, but no one hears them - and I wanted to make sure that didn't happen in my case."
"As I meet more people who were my heroes, I see there is something about them that rings true with all I've ever read and heard about them, and that's all that really matters."
"I think some people enjoy that I say things that upset or shake up people."
"I don't think there is anyone I've ever met who has been more passionate about music than me, but rock 'n' roll has never been about just music. It is music, attitude, personality, persona, myth, legend."
"You have to hit people over the head to make them notice, and I did it."
"I don't want to be just the latest curiosity."
"I change a lot. It's not easy to size me up. There are a lot of conflicts inside."
"I do have some very strange thoughts... Still, all geniuses are mad aren't they?"
"I don't want to force my vibe on anyone, but you've got to learn to love yourself, as opposed to being in love with yourself."
"Children are born with pureness, and gradually become distracted with all the little pressures going on."
"We can tend to be too ambitious when we're young, and a little blind."
"I learned that I can't be as indulgent as I'd like to be when I record."
"In the first place, I was never a very outgoing, public person. That was a facade."
"In some very real way, rock 'n' roll is like a religion to me."
"I believe every major strength we have can be used against us as a weakness. At the same time, things that people see as weakness can be part of our strength."
"I think it is safe to say, as a huge fan of music, that between 1967 and 1972 was the renaissance of rock music. That's when all the forces combined together-the talent that was available and the freedom for the artists. The industry hadn't become so gigantic."
