During the past few decades modern technology with radio TV air travel and satellites has woven a network of communication which puts each part of the world in to almost instant contact with all the other parts.

People naturally change a lot during their 20s so my songs reflect that progression.

The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.

Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can't find the work they studied for or any work at all. So here's the question: Without a change in leadership why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?

I change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person and when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else.

In high school during marathon phone conversations cheap pizza dinners and long suburban car rides I began to fall for boys because of who they actually were or at least who I thought they might become.

After wrestling with myself for six months I began medical treatment. During that time I started a band with some friends of mine called Jack's Car but that didn't last.

In real life one of my friends was killed in a car accident during our sophomore year.

The fact is that a car used by Gerry Adams and myself during the course of the Mitchell review was bugged by elements within British military intelligence.

It wasn't a secret that I was gay. I'd come out to my parents during my junior year of high school on the day that I also wrecked the family car.