You look at the Blur comeback, it was so smooth - so smooth - compared to The Verve.
Pop music might seem banal and simple to some people, but it's what it expresses that counts.
I probably suffered from a narcissistic disorder in some way.
When you go onstage, the process of getting you from the dressing room to the stage is all about ego.
Just because something's kinda indie and whatever and only a few people know it, it doesn't give it more authenticity over Rihanna's 'Work' work work.
Other kids would be playing with their Action Man, and I was questioning life and society.
I don't believe in a new-age movement; I'm not a hippy.
Even if you're not releasing songs, the act of creativity is important. That's the part I love, when you're in the moment. The rest of it I'm not particularly interested in at all.
If this world hasn't made you semi-mad, then you ain't living in it.
It's difficult to be the spokesperson for something that internally is falling apart. That's a tremendous amount of pressure to put on one person, to be the guy who gives all the quotes, all the interviews.
Glasgow Barrowlands is the greatest concert venue in the world.
You know, rock n' roll's an old carcass: it's one big cliche. It's so difficult to do anything that has any sense of freshness or vitality or meaning. But that's what I'm trying to do, to give it new meaning.
We all have our daily prescription of yoga, football, religion, or whatever gets us through that day. My thing is music. It's the only thing that gives me a sense of calm and balance. It's the thing I know I'm good at.
Some people have a God because they need faith, and that's fair enough.
Music is power.
I don't want to be responsible for messing up someone. I don't want to be responsible for that, because the things that happened in The Verve, it was heavy stuff. It was real. It wasn't just frivolous nonsense, you know what I mean? There was real people's lives.
The Richard Ashcroft of 1992 would have struggled to imagine the path my life has taken - he would be amazed at the changes in my song writing.
I don't like being told what to do.
I have never had a bad review off a good-looking person.
We never had a stylist, so I always wore my own clothes.
