Ed Sheeran? I don't like the fact he gets a lot of stick. I like the fact he works hard, and God knows how much money he pays to the tax man each year.
— Richard Ashcroft
There's lots of people I'd love to work with.
The most sacred thing you can get is time. That's all people want on their death bed; that's what it's all about.
I'm a strong person, but every man has his limits.
We all have our daily prescription of yoga, football, religion, or whatever gets us through that day. My thing is music. It's the only thing that gives me a sense of calm and balance. It's the thing I know I'm good at.
We're the most talented musical island ever.
You look at the Blur comeback, it was so smooth - so smooth - compared to The Verve.
Without music and creativity, I'd need other forms of therapy. But for me, the life process is the process of healing yourself. 'Break the Night' is about offering hope to people, about breaking through the darkness.
If I was a painter, I would have hundreds of finished and unfinished canvases in my studio waiting for people to see, and it is the same with my music. I've got so many pieces of music and songs waiting to be heard.
Some people have a God because they need faith, and that's fair enough.
Life is about unforgettable and transcendent moments, isn't it? The point of music is to get the moment.
I think I was born to be a songwriter.
I've never written a 'Revolver' or a 'Pet Sounds.'
It's difficult to be the spokesperson for something that internally is falling apart. That's a tremendous amount of pressure to put on one person, to be the guy who gives all the quotes, all the interviews.
If you start shaping everything you do trying to be in step with whatever is going on in the world, you're often out of step by the time people hear it. It's a bit like fashion.
We'd lie on the floor, turn the lights out, put two speakers on either side of our ears, and try to blow our minds with music. I know that I want to make a record that does that yet a record that, if it was played on the radio at twelve in the afternoon, the guy making the wall - the guy cleaning the motorway - he's got a melody to hang on.
Life's about ego. So for someone to talk about my ego, as they are writing their piece about my ego, I'm wondering what they're doing with their ego?
I am so lucky that I have been part of and written songs that will always resonate no matter how old they get.
The greatest footballers take the sport into the world of art, of performance.
My job is to make grown men cry, to blow people's minds and elevate them, make them transcend and unlock emotions that have been repressed by life, their job, situation - that's what I do.
I am a family man, and I have children.
I was always going to be vulnerable when I left the Verve. It was a hardening experience for me. People saw me stripped down and decided to have their shot. I suppose they wanted to take me down a peg.
You have to build yourself up a bit. You have to believe in yourself, because not that many other people will, you know?
When I read about Gram Parsons' dream of this Cosmic American Music when I was in my late teens, that stuck with me: that idea, that ambition, to draw off the roots of music but take it somewhere fresh.
I'd definitely say I'm a depressive, someone who suffers from depression.
What happened in the '70s was albums and concerts began making a hell of a lot more money, and then the suits got involved.
Criticism is beyond your control and is a collective group of people deciding things about you that may or may not be true. Some critics look for more when there's no need to. They have a dotto-dot picture of me they are intent on filling in.
Creativity, for me, is almost like therapy; my songs take you into the underbelly of my mind, and there's some dark stuff in there.
You can radically change a person's life with a tune. I don't think people truly understand or appreciate how powerful that is.
I've got kids now; it changes you radically.
Not many people come out of a big band as the lead singer/songwriter and making a record, and all of a sudden we're all happily sailing at the same pace as we were before.
I lost a good friend a few years ago, and it happened quite suddenly. Any event like that leaves you with questions. Would a phone call have made a difference? Did the person know that you were there for them?
Of course, fatherhood fundamentally changes a lot of your life, but it enriches you, too.
When you go onstage, the process of getting you from the dressing room to the stage is all about ego.
The mad thing is, most of my life, when I'm not in a dark mood, it's been humour that's got me through. The only way to get through this business is by laughing.
George Best was my idol. I got a chance to meet him once.
Glasgow Barrowlands is the greatest concert venue in the world.
You know, rock n' roll's an old carcass: it's one big cliche. It's so difficult to do anything that has any sense of freshness or vitality or meaning. But that's what I'm trying to do, to give it new meaning.
The Grime guys have kind of rewritten the blueprint for people as far as creativity, songwriting, ownership, doing your own videos... So they're sending out a real positive message I think to people, that you can do it yourself in a punk way, and you can still potentially be successful and get to people.
Really, I listen to more hip hop probably than most other things. That's where I get a lot of my influence from because it's so eclectic. So that's what I love.
I probably suffered from a narcissistic disorder in some way.
I've got a letter from the Dalai Lama at home.
You can find the greatest sound of all time, and someone's going to squash it down to a tiny little earphone anyway or play it through the computer, and that is a big thing people have to think about now.
Pop music might seem banal and simple to some people, but it's what it expresses that counts.
I'm not driven by fame or success. I'm quite a shy, introverted person, and I could easily melt away into the background.
The Richard Ashcroft of 1992 would have struggled to imagine the path my life has taken - he would be amazed at the changes in my song writing.
With 'Break The Night,' each verse is saying, 'Nothing's going right today; nothing ever does.' It's about that kind of repetition, it's that kind of mantra you can get in your mind when you're depressed or down, when it's become like a hamster on a wheel - it's very difficult to break.
Sometimes, you're before your time with ideas, and you have to accept that you can't know.
I'm totally up for experimental music. I'm up for music that they don't play on the radio, and I take in all of it. But my thing, the thing that comes most natural to me, is making the stuff that has a melody; it has a soul to it, yet it's head music.
My thing is, I've yet to meet a well person. The spectrum is unbelievably wide, the triggers for depression and manic depression.
