Quotes from Chris de Burgh

I went to Bethlehem in Christmas 2015 to do a television show for German TV and we filmed in the Church of the Nativity, literally above the place where Christ was born.

Music was my first love, and at Marlborough we put bands together and sang the pop songs of the day. Although I couldn't read or write music - I still can't - I taught myself to play the guitar and piano by listening to songs and working out the chords.

My wife and I are rock solid together and, curiously enough, always have been.

The role of Miss World is one that my daughter has fulfilled to the best of her abilities.

I read about wine every day.

Being hydrated is a key thing for a singer, especially if you're spending three hours on stage five nights a week, and wine dehydrates me faster than beer.

The first confrontation I had with an Aussie wine was a well-known Cabernet/Shiraz and it reminded me of boiled sweets. I find a lot of Australian wines unsubtle.

I know it sounds glamorous, but it was bloody cold growing up in a castle.

I'm very good to my wife. I never go home.

I'm a strong believer in the importance of energies - ley lines, energy streams, whatever you wish to call them - within a house. They can affect your health as well as your happiness.

I remember talking to an architect and he said 'I am making so much money I don't know what to do' - I am in a business where you don't have an idea from one end of the year to the next how what you are going to earn and it is not like a salary that you can guarantee.

Quite simply, to win Miss World is not a ticket to millions and I've read that so many times.

I have found myself able to cure people with my hands.

It's critically important to have family around me, and some of my happiest moments are when I'm just with my family.

I regularly visualise my body from head to toe, and wait for it to tell me if there's anything wrong.

In my 20s, I got into giving people massages and realised I was able to encourage their bodies to heal by passing my hands over them. I'd never describe myself as a faith healer - it's just that if someone believes in this type of healing, I can help release whatever blockage it is that's preventing them healing themselves.

I would hate to go out as a legend on tour just playing all the back hits.

If you look at the big rock hits I've had - 'High on Emotion,' for example - the songs I write have to have a real meaning. There has to be depth.

My mother was actually a breeder, believe it or not, and she used to name horses after some of my songs.

I am a humanist.

Singing in a restaurant is very demeaning and humiliating but you learn from it, because people aren't there for a show, they're there to eat.

Before I ever did a stage concert, I'd done hundreds of living-room concerts, which helped a lot.

My father fought behind Japanese lines in the second world war and it traumatised him. Everybody who knew him from before said he was the life and soul of the party - fun to be with - but after the war he was different.

There wasn't a lot of physical tenderness with my parents. There was plenty of love but we weren't into the hugging thing, which now I've totally reversed with my family to the point where it probably drives them crazy.