I never thought of myself as being handsome or good-looking or whatever. I always felt like an outsider.
— Elton John
I hate to say this, but I always listen to the music and the instrumentation first, and then grab on to the lyrics later.
I'm not everybody's cup of tea. But sometimes criticism can be hurtful. Be respectful. I'm a good piano player, I can sing well, I write good songs. If you don't like it, fair enough. But give me a break.
I'm so proud to be on a Kate Bush record; she's always marched to the beat of her own drum.
I grew up conservative because my mum was a conservative, and when I finally realized what conservatives were, I changed my mind immediately. As children, we tend to copy our parents.
When I say I don't have to write pop songs anymore, there's no way I'm going to get on the radio at 60 years of age unless I'm doing a duet with Gaga or I was on 'All of the Lights,' which was a Kanye West record that managed to get on the radio.
Everything I thought I'd hate about having children - the crying, the screaming - nothing fazes me. I love it all, and it's relaxed me.
I could never go onstage in denims.
Once I'd heard 'Modern Times' by Bob Dylan, it really changed the way I wanted to make records.
I'm very relaxed. I have a family, I have a partner of 20 years, I have a wonderful life; nothing could be better.
For me, music is so passionate, I have to give it my all every time I go onstage. Onstage, it was always comfortable for me, because that's where I felt at home.
I've never been jealous of anybody's success. I've been flummoxed by it because I don't understand it, but I'm not jealous of it.
I just go into the studio, look at the lyrics for the first time when I put them on the piano, and go. If I haven't got it within 40 minutes, I give up. It's never changed, the thrill has never gone, because I don't know what I'm going to get next.
I was just genuinely shy. I'd always been a shy kid.
I loathe gardening, but I love gardens, and I have two beautiful gardens. I can not bear gardening, but I love gardens.
I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.
The worst thing you can do to a child, and I've seen it happen so many times, is the silver spoon.
I'm lucky enough and wealthy enough to be able to buy photographs and buy art that inspires me from day to day. I don't want a Picasso on my wall; it's great art, but it's dead art to me. I'd rather have a photograph by someone I've never heard of that really inspires me.
I am the biggest technophobe of all time.
At heart I've always been a music fan. That part of me has never changed since I was a little kid, sitting in a room watching a record go round, looking at the colour of the labels.
My mum always used to buy a record every Friday.
I grew up at my grandmother's house, and she had a beautiful garden. I used to hate mowing the lawn and weeding, which is what you do when you're a kid. I loathe gardening, but I love gardens, and I have two beautiful gardens.
Simon Cowell and I are great friends, and we wind each other up. Rod Stewart and I do the same thing.
I tour as many countries as possible, and I've toured every state in America, plus every province in Canada.
I rarely wear tennis shoes. I'm 5' 8', I hate being short.
The great thing about small children is they're portable, so we take them everywhere, but when it comes to 2015, Zachary's going to school, and I want to be there to drop him off and pick him up. I don't want to just be the father who reads them a bedtime story.
I've never had a writer's block, but still I think: 'Is it going to happen this time?' You never know what you're going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.
I think performers are all show-offs anyway, especially musicians. Unless you show off, you're not going to get noticed.
I'm addicted to working. I mean, I have a list of 100 countries I want to play in. I'm basically killing myself by travelling so much, for no reason whatsoever.
If I was to say what I am, I'd be a Labour man. I like Tony Blair a lot, I think he's a good man. And in America I'd definitely be a Democrat; I'd never be a Republican.
I went to a mixed school and I can't remember being bullied at school, ever. I was quite large, in those days. Usually, if you're going to be a bully, you'll pick on someone who is small. I didn't bully anybody, and I don't remember being bullied.
I grew up at my grandmother's house and she had a beautiful garden. I used to hate mowing the lawn and weeding, which is what you do when you're a kid.
When Little Richard used to stand up and play it was just fabulous, and Liberace had the candlesticks and the rings and the gift of the gab. The piano's is the most ungainly rock' n' roll instrument of all time but those two people transcended it, as did Jerry Lee Lewis.
The thing about Vegas is, I don't have to fly anywhere, and that really helps. It means I stay in one place for three weeks at a time instead of flying backwards and forwards.
I am so in the past. I'm such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano.
I do like my rock stars to be a little larger than life. I don't mind the earnest ones at all, but I do like a bit of individuality.
When your persona begins to take over your music and becomes more important, you enter a dangerous place. Once you have people around you who don't question you, you're in a dangerous place.
I'm a great lover of children. I never thought that one day I'd actually be a father, but I'm very pleased that I changed my mind. Children are extremely important. They are the future of the world.
Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel.
It's just so wonderful to have someone in the house like a child to turn your attention to. It's not about you anymore, it's about this lovely little human being.
I heard Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, and that was it. I didn't ever want to be anything else. I just started banging away and semi-studied classical music at the Royal Academy of Music but sort of half-heartedly.
I'd always lived with people - my family, or had people living with me, because I'd never liked being on my own.
I love every minute of fatherhood, staying up all night, changing nappies, kids crying, I find it really funny and inspiring. It connects you to the world in a new way.
When people go to rehab and come out, they go through a difficult period, but I never had that.
As a child, as a teenager, I was kind of not allowed to wear fashionable clothes.
I've always been dead set against festivals - really suspicious and wary.
I've always wanted to smash a guitar over someone's head. You just can't do that with a piano.
I grew up conservative because my mum was a conservative, and when I finally realized what conservatives were, I changed my mind immediately.
Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.
If you write great songs with meaning and emotion, they will last for ever because songs are the key to everything. Songs will outlast the artist and they will go on for ever if they are good.
