Quotes from Colin Hay

I play in a lot of empty rooms.

I just found over the years that it's very hard to change people's perception of what it is that you do.

I got very famous for a minute and then it just all went away, you know? And for the last 20 years - you've got to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and then go on your merry way and start again, in a sense, and that's what I've been doing.

I like the process of writing songs. It makes me feel good.

I don't walk off and come back for encores. I figure I can add four weeks to my life that way.

I was brought up west southwest coast of Scotland and my mother and father had a music shop, and so I was surrounded by pianos and drums and guitars, and music, of course.

It's great fun if you get a good piece of writing and you can pretend to be someone else, tell a story that needs to be told, make some kind of connection. I've always fancied myself as a leading man, but I really doubt whether anyone else sees me that way.

My mother features quite heavily in a lot of my songs.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

The Men at Work thing is always there, it's always going to be there. It's not something I consciously think that much about anymore. The thing that stays with you is the songs, which is a good thing for me, because the songs are the things that stand the test of time.

It's frustrating to do albums that you think are worth listening to, but it's just so difficult to cut through.

Well, my thoughts about California are kind of mythological. To me, as well as being a real place, it's a place where people go to find something - to find happiness or to realize their dreams. So it has that kind of quality of heroism and heartache, and Australia has that, as well.

I just want to be a better guitar player, really.

I can't remember too much about the '80s, to be honest with you... I wish that weren't true, but it is.

I find that, rather than the cities, I'm very lucky because the audiences that come and see me are very, generally speaking, truly kind, so I have a great time playing everywhere.

People say history is boring, and that is true because people are boring. We haven't changed since time began. We're still the same. We've obviously made some changes. When we started, it was all about food, clothing and shelter. Now we watch 'Top Chef', 'Project Runway', and 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.'

I used to drink a lot. I had to stop drinking because it was getting the better of me, and I replaced that with really doing shows.

I'd love to have a hit record. I don't believe anyone that says they wouldn't like that.

In certain ways I still feel like I'm finding my way. I feel pretty comfortable playing acoustic guitar and singing, but then I feel pretty good sitting on a reggae groove as well.

In Scotland, beautiful as it is, it was always raining. Even when it wasn't raining, it was about to rain, or had just rained. It's a very angry sky.

I love going up the West Coast of the U. S. because it's one of my favorite parts of the world to tour.

Most people remember me for a couple of tunes.

I tried talking to Jesus, but he just put me on hold...

i dream of ships at sea, on a stormy night i wish that it was me, but i wake up in fright