Historically musicians know what it is like to be outside the norm - walking the high wire without a safety net. Our experience is not so different from those who march to the beat of different drummers.

A few years' experience will convince us that those things which at the time they happened we regarded as our greatest misfortunes have proved our greatest blessings.

Life has a certain flavor for those who have fought and risked all that the sheltered and protected can never experience.

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself and the paintings appear as in a dream.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

I think it's been hard for people to understand how Islam can be a good religion and yet the Islamists are evil. Those of us who have had experience with Islam understand this just as we understand the difference between snake handlers and people going to church on Sunday morning.

Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had any experience with them.

Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment.

I joined the Labour party because I believed in equality in freedom of speech and in tolerance compassion and understanding for people irrespective of their background and views. In whatever I decide to do in the future I will hold to those principles.

You got to fight for quality art and equality and all the things that we're fighting for the things we believe in. Choice and preference and all those things that we support. We don't want to give up that fight. You got to keep doing it.