I learned to change my accent; in England, your accent identifies you very strongly with a class, and I did not want to be held back.

Yoga is almost like music in a way; there’s no end to it.

There’s no religion but sex and music.

I made two movies before The Police had a hit record: I did Quadrophenia and a film called Radio On.

Like Yoga, the spiritual life is actually very difficult.

I exist in a state of almost perpetual hysteria.

I was brought up as a Catholic and went to church every week and took the sacraments. It never really touched the core of my being.

The deeper you get into Yoga you realize it is a spiritual practice. It’s a journey I’m making. I’m heading that way.

The logical process will often be the safe one. I tend, when I’m given that choice, to go the way that’s not safe.

I realize that nothing’s as it seems.

I’ve never lost perspective on who I am. Well, maybe briefly, but generally I’m pretty balanced.

I see music as one language. If one musical form eats its own tail, it dies. So it needs to be a mongrel, it needs to be hybridised.

Love is stronger than justice.

I don’t need to manufacture trauma in my life to be creative. I have a big enough reservoir of sadness or emotional trauma to last me.

Intellectually I’m probably a Republican.

My friends are Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and we’re singing about mortality, getting older. It’s an interesting time.

The more irrational of us are worried about the millennium ending – as if a date would really matter.

I think I’m a focus for international attention.

I don’t like singing before noon.

I was famous overnight. I went from nowhere to being really big.

I feel this music has nurtured me as I’ve been immersing myself in it. I’ve felt supported by it.

I think love has something to do with allowing a person you claim to love to enter a larger arena than the one you create for them.

When the world is running down, you make the best of what’s still around.

It has very little to do with my work, but if your image is not sexy enough, people won’t listen. It’s part of the game.

I think there’s room for both private exploration and group work in Yoga.

Melancholy is no bad thing.

The Super Bowl is Americana at its most kitsch and fun.

I do my best work when I am in pain and turmoil.

It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile.

I can’t fly a flag for monogamy or whatever the opposite is; it depends on the person and on the situation.

If you make your living writing, and you can’t write anything, it’s over. It’s very frightening.

I always stayed fit because I’m a performer, and all of those things help me to perform.

It’s never easy to write a song. It’s the most difficult thing I do.

Peter Townshend shows us it’s all right to grow up. There is dignity after rock’n’roll.

I hate most of what constitutes rock music, which is basically middle-aged crap.

I want to get old gracefully. I want to have good posture, I want to be healthy and be an example to my children.

I can’t really change my life to accommodate people who are jealous. I don’t see why I should.

I’m not much of a family man. I’m just not that into it. I love kids, I adore them, but I don’t want to live my life for them.

I have a big problem with piped music. I like either silence or to listen to it properly.

I really wanted to work with David Lynch. I was a big fan of The Elephant Man and Eraserhead.

I come from a family of losers, and I’ve rejected my family as something I don’t want to be like.

Yoga introduced me to a style of meditation. The only meditation I would have done before would be in the writing of songs.

I’m not speaking as someone who has reached satori or anything else. I’m a student.

One of the rewards of success is freedom, the ability to do whatever you like.

I think you can get the wrong impression about me from my work and think I’m always a bit down. I’m not that way at all. I’m fun-loving.

I learned to change my accent; in England, your accent identifies you very strongly with a class, and I did not want to be held back.

Success always necessitates a degree of ruthlessness. Given the choice of friendship or success, I’d probably choose success.

That sense of failure, I don’t know where people put it who don’t write songs and aren’t able to emote physically. It must go somewhere.

I was recruited to teach 9-year-olds. I taught for two years.

The acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life, in living life happily, as it should be lived. Living for the moment.

I write the music, produce it and the band plays within the parameters that I set.

I have been through various fitness regimes. I used to run about five miles a day and I did aerobics for a while.

I try to give the media as many confusing images as I can to retain my freedom. What’s real is for my children and the people I live with.

I’m very much afraid of being mad – that’s my one fear.

I miss England. I miss the weather. I’ve spent moss of the last 25 years on tour. I’m ready to come home.

I don’t understand American football at all. It looks like all-in wrestling with crash helmets.

An uncle of mine emigrated to Canada and couldn’t take his guitar with him. When I found it in the attic, I’d found a friend for life.

I see songs not as a commodity used up when the album goes off the charts, which is often the case with pop songs. I see them as a body of work. Life should be breathed into them.

I’ve spent a bit of time with the Prince of Wales, who I respect greatly. I’d give two cheers for the Monarchy.

I’ve only paid lip service to a spiritual life.