As a teacher at Princeton I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't really think of it as work - writing a novel in one sense is a problem-solving exercise.

To the teacher weighed down with paperwork I say: you've been messed around too often. You came into teaching to spend your time teaching children not filling in forms.

I have the greatest sympathy with the growth of the socialist party. I think they understand the evils that surround us and hammer them into people's minds better than we Liberals.

I have sympathy for young people for their growing pains but I balk when these growing pains are pushed into the foreground when you make these young people the only vehicles of life's wisdom.

I'm in total sympathy with Dick Smith's sentiments I only wish there were grounds for saying we Australians would never tolerate such appalling treatment of refugees being carried out in our name.

You don't go around grieving all the time but the grief is still there and always will be.

Girlfriend and 100 Percent Fun were my two peeks around '92 and '96. The reality is that the times I had the most media success sold lots of records and played bigger shows I had the least control of my own life.

A sign now of success with a certain audience when you do a short comedy piece anywhere is that it gets on YouTube and gets around. It's always something you're thinking about unconsciously.

With 'Believe' bringing really big success for me outside of the U.K. for the first time it meant I have been touring around the world and that led to a gap from the studio. I really feel like the gap has done me the world of good. Throughout that time I was able to collect songs that I really loved.

Success consists in being successful not in having potential for success. Any wide piece of ground is the potential site of a palace but there's no palace till it's built.