There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me and - I'm going to say something presumptuous to repeat myself - I think most respect me.

I like messing around and I like working with artists who I respect.

I do get recognized but I must say Edinburgh is a fantastic city to live if you're well-known. There is an innate respect for privacy in Edinburgh people and I also think they're used to seeing me walking around so I don't think I'm a very big deal.

Religion is interesting because it brings out the best and the worst in humanity. It can be a source of good deeds whether it's people from different spiritual backgrounds coming together to help other people in need after a crisis. But it's also a cause for war and bloodshed.

The only difference is that religion is much better organised and has been around much longer but it's the same story with different characters and different costumes.

I travel around the world experiencing every language every religion... some places where there's just no reason to smile because their lives are so difficult.

Well religion has been passed down through the years by stories people tell around the campfire. Stories about God stories about love. Stories about good spirits and evil spirits.

The Muslims have as everyone else says the right to practice their religion and they have the right to construct a mosque at ground zero if they wish. What I am saying though is that they should listen to public opinion they should listen to the deep wounds and anguish that this is causing to so many good people.

Although religion was around me my whole life I never felt it was forced upon me. It is my centring my grounding the soul of me. I feel I'm nothing without it.

How do you live with evil? Art is traditionally - certainly with my secular background - the answer but art is very self-referential whereas religion claims to go beyond the bounds of human existence.