As a musician usually music is your way out.

There's always been a hip-hop element to my trousers.

I can't be bothered anymore about giving songs titles.

As soon as it sounds fine, I'm on to the next thing, man.

Oasis were like the bullies I had to put up with at school.

I think pop music is a great place to get new ideas across.

The things that make me happy most are my family and working.

I enjoyed history at school. I'd always had a sense of pagan England.

If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge.

Change terrifies people. They like new, but they don't like new with change.

I used to go to work and take heroin in the studio and then stop when I came home.

I've always known I'm incredibly special. All my life. You know? It's not a big deal.

I'm not a monarchist. But I'm English. And I have an irrational emotion for my country.

There's need to be some sort of disturbance in your psyche for creativity to be sparked.

I'm English, and I started off as a songwriter, so I can't really escape that - it's there.

Being in Blur has allowed me to travel and hear the music that's being made all over the world.

It's not like my old self - I'm not in character anymore, I'm me. I'm not hiding behind that anymore.

My guaranteed way of sending myself into deep depression is to read music trade papers and watch MTV.

More and more, cultural groups are cross-pollinating, and we're getting much more interesting art as a result.

Music is something that should speak for itself, straight from the heart. It took me a long time to understand that.

Trying to write music that's sensitive to 400 years ago takes a bit of madness, as it's such a long stretch of time.

In the Sixties people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, people take Prozac to make it normal.

Every time I go to Africa, I see the future. I see what the Western world is going to become. It's a very futuristic place.

If you don't see something as a career but as an important part of your life, you don't know how you're going to feel about it.

Danger Mouse is now working on a bunch of other records, translating his ideas about remixing into all sorts of other projects.

I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics

I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics.

I have to wear a new T-shirt every night. I throw them into the audience. One day I'm going to go around the world and reclaim all my T-shirts

Whenever you're writing something that's reflective, you have to put yourself through some sort of ordeal just to understand the way you're feeling.

I want to be a better person in every aspect. I really don't feel I've in anyway fulfilled my potential in every area of my life. But I'm optimistic.

The whole Gorillaz concept is one for mavericks; it's a way for people who never have a chance to work together being able to ally behind the cartoons.

Yeah. You've seen The Sun today; I've got myself a big house, settled down. Apart from the odd night out with the New Fathers' Club, I'm a family man now.

And there are no stars and that you're never really sure who's doing what and what voice is what and, you know what I mean? It's supposed to be quite elusive

And there are no stars and that you're never really sure who's doing what and what voice is what and, you know what I mean? It's supposed to be quite elusive.

I'm a working musician, so it's what I do. I kind of always have lots of plates spinning, and it's the ones that keep spinning the longest that I end up doing.

No, every album is something like a snapshot. It only shows one moment in time. It shows what we feel and think right at that point in time, nothing more and nothing less

I used to be younger than my producers but now I'm older than my producers and I think that works for me, that works better cause you get a good kick up the ... everyday.

No, every album is something like a snapshot. It only shows one moment in time. It shows what we feel and think right at that point in time, nothing more and nothing less.

I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there. But I felt that was missing the point of using me, a musician

I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there. But I felt that was missing the point of using me, a musician.

You know, there are many alter egos and Gorillaz is a collective of alter egos, really. I think anyone who gets involved in it has to sort of accept that nothing is really as it seems.

The cartoon is a metaphor really for the fact that it's almost impossible in our celebrity obsessed culture to move around genres and sort of change you ideas, change your face, you know?

The best way to get to know Africa is to go there and see what it is. To know somewhere that crazy and that magnificent, you have to spend some time among people, the rhythm of their lives.

I don't need to be a frontman all the time, and in fact, the older I get, the less of an urge it is inside me to play that role. I've still got it inside me, and I do occasionally allow it out.

I was going through a break up. I was depressed... I really did need to do something. Recording an album was a great escape. I don't know what would have happened if I wouldn't have started to work.

The whole period has taught me that I enjoy being part of an ensemble rather than just a front man. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy that too, but I get more enjoyment out of really listening to everyone.

Whether people like it or not, China is incredibly important to the future of mankind. For me, this is something that we all need to have intelligent discussions about in America, in Britain, in Europe.

What you learn from working with other performers and musicians is invaluable, really, and can only help you grow. I mean, if you spend your whole life focusing on yourself, you're not really learning much.

China is one of those vast, continental conglomerates that... I mean, if they were to start a tourist trade in China, they'd just bus people in from another province, you know what I mean? They're very self-contained.

I was naive enough to believe it would be enough to replace the government. Well, I made fun of the people in the government and then realized that even if we got rid of them, they were replaced by exactly the same guys.

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