I can't complain about the support I've been given over the years, but I don't like it slipping away. Nobody says 'I'd like to be a bit less successful next year, please'. Nobody on the planet wants that, and I certainly don't.
— Robbie Williams
There is a history of gay people pretending to be straight. I want to balance the sides. I'm a straight person pretending to be gay. I've had a lot of people to imitate. It's easy when you're British; we're camp by nature, anyway.
If you want to sell the most records, duet with me. If you need someone to come in and bless your record sales, I'm your man.
I've been asked many times if I considered myself a narcissist, so I looked up the real meaning of the word, and I came to the conclusion that indeed I am one. I think of myself as better than other people, not every person, but many, unique and talented, and I aim to success.
I don't think it's important to be that good at singing. I think people who are good at singing sing backing vocals for pop stars. It's about how you project. I wouldn't consider myself to be a singer.
I think that, to a lot of people, they don't like my brand of whatever I do. And I think that people - the ones that like me, at least - see me as their brother or their older uncle or their friend or their next door neighbour. I am the quintessential boy next door; I feel that way.
I'm mainstream, and I have pretty chart-tastic tastes. I don't often veer away from a big melodic song with big words for big stadiums.
People say you've got to be OK with your own company, but tell me why?
I think dysfunctional people are being funneled into very corporate behaviour. Look at the Brits... no one's fighting, and it's boring.
I want a hit. I don't think anybody spends 12 months writing and recording an album, making something cool, and says, 'Great, I hope this doesn't sell.' I don't understand that mind-set. I want hits: a big bunch of them.
I'm constantly doing new stuff, and I want it to be received really well. Who knows what's ego, what's business, what's artistic. It all shifts on a day-to-day basis.
I enjoy nakedness. I am a bit of a naturist at heart.
When I'm awake, I don't want to go to sleep. I don't want the hassle of turning the light off, putting my head down and then all the thoughts. I don't want al those thoughts... thoughts feed on thoughts feed on thoughts feed on thoughts feed on thoughts and I'm: 'I don't want this'. I have to knock myself out to go to sleep.
Depression isn't about, 'Woe is me, my life is this, that and the other', it's like having the worst flu all day that you just can't kick.
What happens is I speak to people outside of my circle of friends and they have already formed an opinion of me based on the things that people have written. That is the effect of journalism on my life, and sometimes it isn't very pleasant.
The entertainment industry and my place in it is a place where you burn brightly for as long as you can.
My dad sent Frank Sinatra a dollar bill to autograph, and when it came back, signed, he had it framed: it was always up on the wall in whatever flat we were in.
I like me food. I also don't like me exercising. It's something me don't do very well. But it's something I've got to get into.
There used to be a huge hole in my life that I wrote many albums about. I didn't realise it was a wife-and-daughter-shaped hole. They've plugged that gap. Everything I do, I do for them now. When daddy goes to work, it's daddy going to work, not Rob going to work. I feel like there's a purpose to everything.
I'd make a better U.S. president than George W. Bush. Bush is an idiot. I'm a better public speaker than him. It makes you wonder about the voters.
I'm sure that when my daughter will bring home her first boyfriend, I'll be so intimidating that he'll run away, but embarrassing as well, just to have a bit of fun.
Do I think I'm a national treasure? I don't see why not? I don't see why I shouldn't be. I'm a good lad, really.
I have only one ambition, which is to be famous.
I spent a lot of my twenties wanting a maid, really. I thought I wanted a relationship, but I just wanted somebody to fix and nurse me, and I'd take her hostage for six months. When you're 23, 24, you want to be in a relationship because they look brilliant - you've heard all the songs about it and seen all the movies and it looks great.
Because I'm no longer a pop star 24 hours a day, I'm no longer bogged down by the stupid stuff that used to cripple me. I don't bruise easily any more.
I am not as bad as people would suggest. Not as good as I would like to be.
I like to be comfortable, but I do enjoy being a British gent and dressing up a bit.
I've had to make friends with an awful lot of bad fashion choices.
I'm a born entertainer. When I open the fridge door and the light goes on, I burst into song.
I've lived in L.A. for a long time, and they say, 'If you sit in a barber's shop for long enough, you will get a hair cut.' Well, if you live in Los Angeles for long enough, you're going to get some surgery.
I did the rock 'n roll-pop cliche of getting burnt out. I'm not the first person that happened to, and I'm sure I won't be the last.
I'm still looking for the rules of what is and isn't pop music. I'm pop. I mean, of course I am. What isn't pop? There should be a pop amnesty where everyone reclaims it.
I'm not educated. I left school when I was 16, with no qualifications.
Look at Paul McCartney, look at Elton John. They're jealous of Justin Timberlake. I'm sure they were jealous of me when I was in my imperial phase.
I'm a fan boy when it comes to Michael Buble. He's just so good at 'it'. He's got a voice of this generation, but he's like a time capsule; he's got a voice that could have fit in anywhere over the last hundred years. It's stellar.
There aren't many great adverts for marriage or parenthood. It always looks so stressful, and that's what I've been scared of. What you don't realise is how much you're going to get back.
There is a lot of snobbery towards pop music, to me and pop in general - it's kind of a despised art form.
I think you're very lucky to find somebody you can coexist with without straying or going mad or being angry. That's whether you're Liam Gallagher and Nicole Appleton, Robbie Williams and Ayda Field, or Tim and June from down the road.
I have a gigantic ego and need to be at the top of the pile and be doing amazingly well; also, at the same time, I'm just pleased to be anywhere.
It's success, not fame, that is quite addictive. I'm addicted to a lot of things and, as it happens, success is one of them.
Scientology, Buddhism, the Kabbalah... if it makes people's lives better, and easier, then I'll do it. Why not? People scoffed at Christianity 2,000 years ago, didn't they?
On an emotional level, success in America would be terrible for me; it would be insane. I really, seriously, never want to be famous here.
You know, I am a mainstream person with mainstream tastes, and I want to hear the hits.
I refuse to totally grow up. I've always been someone who says and does things that push politically correct boundaries.
I'm trying to not follow fashion. I don't even like the word. But I do like clothes, and I like nicely cut clothes that last and that are built to be worn for the next 30 years.
I show off - I'm a very good show off. It's what I do, it's what I'm good at.
I'm conscious of age, but I'm more suspicious of it than anything.
I don't know about an awful lot of stuff. I'm not educated. I left school when I was 16, with no qualifications. The thing that I do know about is my feelings and what I think of the world and what I think of me.
Everybody who's anybody has been competitive and over-sensitive and a bit silly. Look at Paul McCartney, look at Elton John. They're jealous of Justin Timberlake. I'm sure they were jealous of me when I was in my imperial phase.
In Los Angeles, I feel connected to a hubbub of strangeness. And I enjoy that; I like strangeness.
