That happens every time I get behind a guitar regardless of what I'm saying 'cause music is freedom and being free is the closest I've ever felt to being spiritual.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road don't expect freedom to survive very long.

Punk is musical freedom. It's saying doing and playing what you want. In Webster's terms 'nirvana' means freedom from pain suffering and the external world and that's pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.

I can forgive but I cannot forget is only another way of saying I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.

I've realized that I'm more important than food is. I love a big slice of pizza but I love myself more. Being thin is about changing the way you think about yourself. It's about saying that you deserve to be healthy.

When it comes to Chinese food I have always operated under the policy that the less known about the preparation the better. A wise diner who is invited to visit the kitchen replies by saying as politely as possible that he has a pressing engagement elsewhere.

I went in saying I wanted to be the food guy.

I suffer panic attacks which has made me really conscious about my fitness and I have become addicted to jogging. It might sound odd but a lot of good has come out of it. My fans send letters saying they have taken up jogging because I do it.

I think interviews can be fine. It's just there's this terrible fear of coming off wrongly or saying something that gets taken out of context.

I was horrified when Richard Chamberlain and Rupert Everett said gay actors should stay in the closet. They were saying to people that they should live a lie and not be liberated to live in fear of being found out.

The famous saying 'God is love' it is generally assumed means that God is like our immediate emotional indulgence not that the meaning of love ought to have something of the 'otherness' and terror of God.

I keep saying I'm not at all famous in my own country because people do not think I have done anything for India.

You do now have one in three people as shown by the famous Carlton Monarchy debate poll saying they want to get rid of the Monarchy. That was unthinkable even three four years ago.

I remember Michael saying 'Rich and famous? It's much better to be just rich'. I didn't quite get it to begin with. But he's right. You lose anonymity. I say to my family that you've no idea until you lose it how precious anonymity is.

I kept saying that I'd never live in L.A. and I didn't think I would. But that's where the work is and I ended up making a lot of friends there and my old friends moved out to Los Angeles too. And also I think when you're famous its hard to live in a small town.

Comedy has to be done en clair. You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.

The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You're in a conversation and everybody's agreeing with what you're saying - even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don't want to hear.

I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn't have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism not just make movies about it. I admired this about him.

I'm not asking that people accept homosexuality. I'm not asking that they believe like I do that it's inborn. I'm not asking that. All I'm saying is don't let these children suffer without a family because of your bias.

And when I was young my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think I don't think anyone in my family would really feel I'd done them an injustice by saying that. We didn't see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

And I keep saying whether you like the president or not everybody has to pull together and help the president because as the president goes so goes the country as the country goes so goes your job your ability to feed your family your government.

But the problem is that when I go around and speak on campuses I still don't get young men standing up and saying 'How can I combine career and family?'

Let the people who never find true love keep saying that there's no such thing. Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

At the end of the day I have always seen the end of my relationships as a personal failure. There is nothing ever pretty in saying goodbye.