Robbie Williams

There is a lot of snobbery towards pop music, to me and pop in general - it's kind of a despised art form.

I'm still looking for the rules of what is and isn't pop music. I'm pop. I mean, of course I am. What isn't pop? There should be a pop amnesty where everyone reclaims it.

Perhaps I'm absolutely bonkers and don't know it. Perhaps I'm psychotically mental.

I refuse to totally grow up. I've always been someone who says and does things that push politically correct boundaries.

I want a hit. I don't think anybody spends 12 months writing and recording an album, making something cool, and says, 'Great, I hope this doesn't sell.' I don't understand that mind-set. I want hits: a big bunch of them.

I like to be comfortable, but I do enjoy being a British gent and dressing up a bit.

I'm trying to not follow fashion. I don't even like the word. But I do like clothes, and I like nicely cut clothes that last and that are built to be worn for the next 30 years.

I can't complain about the support I've been given over the years, but I don't like it slipping away. Nobody says 'I'd like to be a bit less successful next year, please'. Nobody on the planet wants that, and I certainly don't.

I enjoy nakedness. I am a bit of a naturist at heart.

Look at Paul McCartney, look at Elton John. They're jealous of Justin Timberlake. I'm sure they were jealous of me when I was in my imperial phase.

I come from the tradition of a big Irish family that loves to sing. I love to perform.

I did the rock 'n roll-pop cliche of getting burnt out. I'm not the first person that happened to, and I'm sure I won't be the last.

When people come out of rehab, they usually go to secondary rehab for another six months and then enter back into society gradually. But I came out and did Top Of The Pops straight away!

Depression isn't about, 'Woe is me, my life is this, that and the other', it's like having the worst flu all day that you just can't kick.

I don't think it's important to be that good at singing. I think people who are good at singing sing backing vocals for pop stars. It's about how you project. I wouldn't consider myself to be a singer.

I don't have anything that I treasure at all. They're just things. I tend to buy an awful lot of stuff, like clothes and things. But I wouldn't be bothered if my house burns down tomorrow.

Everybody who's anybody has been competitive and over-sensitive and a bit silly. Look at Paul McCartney, look at Elton John. They're jealous of Justin Timberlake. I'm sure they were jealous of me when I was in my imperial phase.

I think that, to a lot of people, they don't like my brand of whatever I do. And I think that people - the ones that like me, at least - see me as their brother or their older uncle or their friend or their next door neighbour. I am the quintessential boy next door; I feel that way.

When I'm awake, I don't want to go to sleep. I don't want the hassle of turning the light off, putting my head down and then all the thoughts. I don't want al those thoughts... thoughts feed on thoughts feed on thoughts feed on thoughts feed on thoughts and I'm: 'I don't want this'. I have to knock myself out to go to sleep.

I've been watching what I eat. When I was putting on all the weight, I was drinking Guinness and not eating. I didn't have room to because I was drinking all the time.

My dad sent Frank Sinatra a dollar bill to autograph, and when it came back, signed, he had it framed: it was always up on the wall in whatever flat we were in.

I don't know about an awful lot of stuff. I'm not educated. I left school when I was 16, with no qualifications. The thing that I do know about is my feelings and what I think of the world and what I think of me.

I'm a bit of a slag... Some people don't think it's very nice, but I don't care... I've got hormones, and sex is there, so why not? Sex is good. Everybody does it, and everybody should!

Because I'm no longer a pop star 24 hours a day, I'm no longer bogged down by the stupid stuff that used to cripple me. I don't bruise easily any more.

I couldn't live without my music, man. Or me mum.

I'm sure that when my daughter will bring home her first boyfriend, I'll be so intimidating that he'll run away, but embarrassing as well, just to have a bit of fun.

Do I think I'm a national treasure? I don't see why not? I don't see why I shouldn't be. I'm a good lad, really.

There used to be a huge hole in my life that I wrote many albums about. I didn't realise it was a wife-and-daughter-shaped hole. They've plugged that gap. Everything I do, I do for them now. When daddy goes to work, it's daddy going to work, not Rob going to work. I feel like there's a purpose to everything.

People change. I wouldn't like to be accountable for the interviews I've done, or the person I was when I was 20, 21.

What happens is I speak to people outside of my circle of friends and they have already formed an opinion of me based on the things that people have written. That is the effect of journalism on my life, and sometimes it isn't very pleasant.

In Los Angeles, I feel connected to a hubbub of strangeness. And I enjoy that; I like strangeness.

If you want to sell the most records, duet with me. If you need someone to come in and bless your record sales, I'm your man.

I'm quite open to the fact that I might be a tinfoil-hat freak.

I think dysfunctional people are being funneled into very corporate behaviour. Look at the Brits... no one's fighting, and it's boring.

I feel like I'm always having to justify why I haven't kept in touch with anyone from the old days in Stoke-on-Trent, but I'm like that with anybody. I don't let anybody in. I just rely on myself.

I think there are ghosts. I haven't seen or heard anything. I've definitely felt something, but it's not scary.

It would be great to see somebody like Kid Rock kissing a man. But I'm sure that he wouldn't like the prospect of it put to him, and I won't even go there with Eminem.

I've lived in L.A. for a long time, and they say, 'If you sit in a barber's shop for long enough, you will get a hair cut.' Well, if you live in Los Angeles for long enough, you're going to get some surgery.

You've got a beautiful country with so many beautiful people and so many beautiful things happening and stuff like that lets it down. I feel sad for them.

I still find trusting people quite hard. I've got a couple of mates that I do let in, but that's it. It's something I've got to sort out - I cut people off.

I've had to make friends with an awful lot of bad fashion choices.

The entertainment industry and my place in it is a place where you burn brightly for as long as you can.

I've never, ever, raised a fist to anybody in my life.

As a 29-year-old, the only thing that I can possibly think is that if I'm still performing at 50, it's because I'll have had disastrous marriages and I have to pay for them.

The thing about drugs and sex is that you lose all your inhibitions. I've had sex in trains, planes, wine bars... and quite a few car parks!

Scientology, Buddhism, the Kabbalah... if it makes people's lives better, and easier, then I'll do it. Why not? People scoffed at Christianity 2,000 years ago, didn't they?

I am not as bad as people would suggest. Not as good as I would like to be.

Do I believe in aliens? No. I think there could be. Do I believe in God? No, I think there could be. Do I believe that Jesus actually existed? No. I think he could have done. A few things I've seen. A few things I've read. A few things I've watched have sparked my interest. Do I think it could all be rubbish? Yeah. I do.

I'm not educated. I left school when I was 16, with no qualifications.

I'm conscious of age, but I'm more suspicious of it than anything.