- [on whether he thinks he is a good actor] I took you in, didn't I? I rest my make-up case.
- [during an interview about his new album in 1999] I have nothing to say about the new album. Can I go now?
- Talking about art is like dancing about architecture.
- I rate Morrissey as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he's up there with Bryan Ferry.
- [on receiving an honorary degree from Boston's Berklee College of Music] Any list of advice I have to offer to a musician always ends with, "If it itches, go and see a doctor.".
- I know about Kylie [Kylie Minogue] and Robbie [Robbie Williams] and Pop Idol (2001) and stuff like that. You can't get away from that when you hit the [British] shore, so I know all about the cruise ship entertainment aspect of British pop.
- I'm an instant star; just add water.
- [from 1992] It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be.
- I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.
- I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized autobiography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody.
- [in 1976 interview with Playboy] It's true - I am a bisexual. But I can't deny that I've used that fact very well. I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me. Fun, too.
- You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.
- [on his biggest worldwide hit song, "Let's Dance"] I don't know how many times someone has come up to me and said, "hey, let's dance!" I hate dancing. God, it's stupid.
- I reinvented my image so many times that I'm in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.
- [on being 50] Fab. But, you know, I don't feel fifty. I feel not a day over forty-nine. It's incredible. I'm bouncy, I feel bouncy.
- I once asked [John Lennon] what he thought of what I do. He said, "it's great, but its just rock and roll with lipstick on".
- I gave up smoking six months before I had the heart attack - so that was worth it, wasn't it! I started to give up when my daughter was born because I wouldn't smoke in the house with her there so I had to go outside. It's bloody cold in winter in New York, so I just quit.
- [on Syd Barrett] The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the '60s will forever be etched in my mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter. Also, along with Anthony Newley, he was the first guy I'd heard to sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed.
- [on his pop sound during the 1980s] There was a period when I was performing in front of these huge stadium crowds at that time and I'm thinking: "What are these people doing here? Why have they come to see me? They should be seeing Phil Collins." They were definitely Phil Collins type audiences, you know? And then, that came back at me and I thought: "What am I doing here? I should be playing to people who don't look like they've come to see Phil Collins." That's what I'd been used to up until that point. I don't know the guy. There's a certain kind of mainstream field that I'm not comfortable in. I'm just not comfortable in it.
- [from 1983] I get offered so many bad movies. And they're all raging queens or transvestites or Martians.
- [in 2002] I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners or be a representative of any group of people. I knew what I wanted to be, which was a songwriter and a performer, and I felt that bisexuality became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, and I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do.
- [on Elvis Presley] I saw a cousin of mine when I was young. She was dancing to "Hound Dog" and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything. It really impressed me, the power of the music. I started getting records immediately after that.
- [Sigmund Freud] would have a heyday with me.
- The whole animal of rock keeps changing itself so fast and so furiously that you just can't plan ahead.
- Rock has always been the devil's music.
- The only thing I ever got out of fame was a better table in a restaurant. And for that I gave up being able to relate to people.
- I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image.
- I like crazy art and, most of the time, out-there music. Rather than having a hit song these days, I like the idea that I'm in there changing the plan of what society and culture look like, sound like. I did change things; I knew I would. It feels great, and very rewarding.
- "Hunky Dory" gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience - I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying,"'Good album, good songs.". That hadn't happened to me before. It was like, "Ah, I'm getting it, I'm finding my feet. I'm starting to communicate what I want to do. Now: what is it I want to do?" There was always a double whammy there.
- [speaking in 2002] Of the 26 albums I've made I think there were two when I really wasn't involved and that was "Tonight" and "Never Let Me Down", the two follow-ups to "Let's Dance". That period was my Phil Collins years.
- [speaking in 2002] It seems to be traditional now that every album since "Black Tie White Noise" is the best album I've put out since "Scary Monsters".
- [on the song "Dance Magic" from Labyrinth (1986)] In a recording studio, a baby I'd picked from one of the backup singers . . . couldn't put two gurgles together. And it wouldn't work for me, it wouldn't go, I kicked it, I did everything to make it scream but it wouldn't, it really buttoned its lips so I ended up doing the gurgles, so I'm the baby on that track as well. I thought "What the hell? I've done "Laughing Gnome", I might as well go all the way with that.". I never thought in 20 years I'd come back to working with gnomes.
- [on Freddie Mercury] Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest. He took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand.
- [in 1972] Sometimes I don't feel as if I'm a person at all. I'm just a collection of other people's ideas.
- [in 1980] I have a lot of reservations about what I've done, inasmuch as I don't feel much of it has any import at all.
- [in 1975] I like fast drugs. I hate anything that slows me down.
- [on declining the royal honor of Commander of the British Empire in 2000, and turning down a knighthood in 2003] I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don't know what it's for. It's not what I spent my life working for.
- [in 1973] Offstage, I'm a robot. Onstage, I achieve emotion. It's probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David.
- The lowest point in my life was in 1975, when I was 28, living in Los Angeles. I really did think that my thoughts about not making 30 would come true. Drugs had taken my life away from me. I felt as though I would probably die and it was going to be all over. My assistant, Coco, got me out of it. Thanks to her, I got myself out of America to Berlin. Best advice, which I wish I had known at 18? Don't do drugs.
- [on Annie Lennox] Most exquisite. Absolutely fabulous.
- [at The Freddie Mercury Tribute: Concert for AIDS Awareness (1992)] God bless Queen.
- [on the late Lou Reed] He was a master.
- [in 2014] I'm completely delighted to have a Brit for being the best male but I am, aren't I Kate [Kate Moss]? I think it's a great way to end the day. Thank you very very much - and Scotland, stay with us.
- [on Live Aid (1985)] I'd do it again like a shot. This has to become an annual event. It really does. And I think a lot of us would pledge to do a show like this every year until starvation in many areas of the world, not just Ethiopia, was under some kind of control. Everybody had such a fantastic time, I'd love to do it again.
- All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.
- [when advised not to take drugs in his youth] Before I took them, when I took them and afterwards. Every time, that advice was right.
- [on declining the role of "Max Zorin" in A View to a Kill (1985), which ultimately went to Christopher Walken instead] It was simply a terrible script; I saw little reason for spending so much time on something so workmanlike. And I told them so. I don't think anyone had turned down a major role in a James Bond movie before. It really didn't go down well at all. People were very touchy about it.
- I have an undying belief in God's existence. For me it is unquestionable.
- [on his reputation as a well read intellectual] I'm a born librarian with a sex drive.
- I've always cited who my influences are. I felt it was important for people to be able to see how things are put together at any given stage. I let people know what's going through my head. I've been quite vocal about that through the years. It often amuses me to see bands who lie about who they're listening to, because they don't want people to know who their real influences are. They leave a trail of red herrings. It's disingenuous, to say the least. I've always loved the process - to see how things are put together.
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