"Composers today get a TV script on Friday and have to record on Tuesday. It's just dreadful to impose on gifted talent and expect decent music under these conditions"

"Music is my religion"

"I've always been into melodies. That's what I love about music – a good melody that gives you goosebumps"

"I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today"

"In thinking about nanotechnology today, what's most important is understanding where it leads, what nanotechnology will look like after we reach the assembler breakthrough"

"We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it"

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music"

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

"Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true"

"I just had lunch with Slash two days ago. He loves Axl. He holds no grudges towards him. Twenty years of great music wasn't created because of some stupid grudge. That's a shame"

"The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today"