Gilbert O'Sullivan

It's very easy to think about rhymes and just usage of words that sound good but don't mean anything. Basically, I try to put into song the way people actually talk.

Some artists say 'Don't categorize me.' I'm saying 'You can't categorize me.'

Doing the Best I Can' is a sure fire hit. Incredibly commercial. But what could you say about it? Catchy and good to dance to. But 'Nothing Rhymes' is different. A much bigger risk but it was lyrics people could talk about. So that was the one to launch me on.

I'd love to see myself on sale in shops. It tickles me, does the idea of me being marketed.

The Beatles changed everything . I knew I couldn't compete, couldn't be as cool, so I went completely the other way.

The way I do that is to keep coming up with good songs and when I do a concert, I make sure I give a good performance. It's not rocket science.

I never wanted global fame you know.

I couldn't live without Radio 1. They condemned me to oblivion, but they're what I grew up with.

The quality of my songs will get through to people. They are good songs. Lyrically, some of them are interesting: there's stories, a bit of humour. I'm very confident about the music I play, you know.

I quite like the idea of performing in front of people that don't like me.

I see myself in competition with Blur and Oasis. But everyone else just sees me as this guy with a history.

I always tell people that I went through long hair. I was a typical art school scruff. It was good then.

I don't trust anybody.

Nothing Rhymed,' my first single in England, was a nice ballad, which I thought would sound like a songwriter typical of the day - denim, jeans, long hair, early 20s.

I thought my singing and songwriting were good, but nothing different. Then you're presented with this picture image that contradicts the impression you get from listening to the record.

Song writing is very serious; it is hard.

To be successful to me meant to have a hit record in England. I never looked outside England.

It is ironic that losing makes you more liked than winning.

I feel every time I have 12 good songs for a new album, I am in with a chance to compete with the big boys. As long as I have that attitude, it's healthy.

What I would hate to go through is what happened in the mid-90s playing in front of a half-empty theatre, which prompted me to say 'never again' when it came to Waterford. To go through that again in any of the places I call home would destroy me.

I never complete a song until I'm actually going to make a record.

When it comes to my songs I'm confident. Back in 1967, I would go to a publisher's office, and tell them they just had to listen to my music.

I always take a teapot with me on tour. I suppose it's only natural that I've just written a song called 'Where Would We Be Without Tea?'

I couldn't live without tea. I have two cups in the morning, one at lunch, two in the afternoon and one in the evening - Assam with milk and sugar. It has to be leaf tea - no bags - and drunk from a china cup.

When the magazines talk about artists they talk about the Paul McCartneys, the Paul Simons, they never talk about me. So their readers and contemporary artists are never going to check me out because they're not reading about me.

What I can't understand is why people still won't give me the credibility that I look for. If Mojo or any other of those magazines would give me the credit for only ever performing my own songs rather than someone like Rod Stewart singing other people's songs looking for success.

I'm very much a home bird. I sometimes think I should have been a domestic. I like sweeping up, getting everything tidy. I'm obsessive compulsive. I don't mind admitting it.

I'm not a great socialiser. Nor am I a red carpet person.

I have quite a strong self-belief.

I was a big fan of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

My motto is, 'You may not be as good as you think you are, but thinking you are is good.'

Technology has very little to do with what I do. I have a purpose built studio but all I need for writing is my piano and a cassette recorder as I still use cassettes.

I'm basically as shy a person as I was when I once worked in an office in London in the late Sixties. I like my own company. I didn't need a lot of friends.

I must be the only artist whose image was hated by everybody.

The measure of success was writing a song, recording it and for it being in the hit parade in England. Success was about the postman walking up the garden whistling my song. I wasn't trying to conquer the world.

I didn't come into the music business to make money. I came into it to be a success. Of course, if you're successful, you'll earn money and I was happy to receive it.

As you get older you lose interest in what you hear on the radio. But you can't be like that, you have to enjoy what's going on.

I've only recorded my own songs. I don't consider myself a great singer, so I wouldn't be comfortable interpreting other people's songs.

Lennon and McCartney became great songwriters because they were prepared to listen to and learn from all types of music.

It's all very well making records, but the joy of performing is that you get to meet people who give you instant feedback.

I love writing and I just sit at my keyboard and write.

I wanted to look different. I liked being original.

I only think in the following terms: writing, recording, releasing. That's what I have control of. What I don't have control is whether critics or the public like what I do.

I've never recorded anyone else's songs. I'm not interested. If you gave me a song by Bono and Edge and promised me a number one hit with it I'd still say no. That, for me, is not the kind of success I want.

The basis of everything I do is down to the song. If I don't have the song I don't sing, and if I don't sing I don't perform.

The perception that if you're not on 'Top Of The Pops' you're dead and buried is a good one for pop music, because 'TOTP' is a catalyst or barometer for pop success.

I do pick up on contemporary issues.

Success for me is to write what I think is a good song. When I'm pleased with it, that, for me, is a magical moment. I never lost that buzz.

We all try to increase our length of life, but we all have to pass. It's highly interesting as a lyricist.

I do like to write about dark subjects.