Quotes from Gilbert O'Sullivan

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

Just because you sell millions of records it doesn't guarantee bums on seats.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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.

You see, I read reviews of people like Paul Simon, and they don't talk about the fact that he's looking old or whether he is fashionable; they talk about the music, which is how it should be.

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

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 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 am immensely proud of my Irish roots.

Whenever I write lyrics and an Americanism slips in, I always cut it straight out. I can't use the word 'babe,' for instance. It makes me cringe.

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

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

I was one of six children, brought up by my mother in Swindon after my father died. We had all we needed - food on the table, clothes to wear. When I wanted a drum kit, my mother got me one. When I got into playing guitar, I came down one Christmas or birthday and there was a guitar for me. It amazes me how Mum managed to do it.

I used to get these reviews in American newspapers saying that they didn't understand what my lyrics were about. I saw that as a compliment. That's exactly what English songwriters should be doing!

I know I can cut it with any songwriters in the world.