Quotes from Phil Collins

There were 'big stars' at the Alamo! Bowie, Crockett! It is a huge political event because it, and the events at Goliad and San Jacinto, changed the look of a map of America. America would be a very different place if Texas had remained Mexican.

Genesis fans are a religious group!

Often there's a BA crew, because half the time we stay at the same hotels, especially in Australia. I can remember spending quite a lot of time with crews around the pool there. They always make themselves known to us.

I'm fascinated by what people will do to each other. Actually, I'm sort of interested in the gory details of life.

There's no magic for getting into the groove... just banging away at it. Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes the music.

Each thing leapfrogs. I do a Genesis project - like now, we're just finishing off an album - and then by the time the album is doing its thing, I could do nothing or I could do a film.

Another time, we had three days off in Australia, so we went out of our way to fly to Ayres Rock.

Everything has added up to a load that I'm getting tired of carrying. It's gotten so complicated. It's the three failed marriages, and having kids that grew up without me, and it's the personal criticism, of being Mr. Nice Guy, or of divorcing my wife by fax, all that stuff, the journalism, some of which I find insulting.

I am stopping so I can be a full time father to my two young sons on a daily basis.

When I go on Japanese Airlines, I really love it because I like Japanese food.

I've spent the last year and a half going through a very public separation, hiding in hotel lobbies.

It's actually come as quite a shock to learn just how many people don't like me.

That's going to be on my headstone: 'He came. He wrote 'In the Air Tonight.' He... died.'

The stereotypical rock-star-trashing-a-hotel-room thing? Those days had passed by the time I was in a band big enough to do it.

Of course you can't please everyone all the time. It's just something that I've got to get over, and I'm better at it now.

I suppose you can't take kids into consideration all the time, but I just wish there could be a bit of flexibility.

I remember flying with Air India to New York quite a few years ago now and I love Indian food, so the fact that I had a curry on board was fantastic.

You know, I've released some great records and I've released some dogs. But frankly, the fun is in creating the thing.

If Miles Davis hadn't died it would have been interesting to do an album with him, but there wasn't much else that would have got me into the studio... although Herbie Hancock has just been in touch about doing something and that would be an interesting combination.

No seriously... when there's families, you tend to go back to your room after the gig rather than go for a drink with the other guys. But there's always someone who's got something going, like the tour manager.

As soon as you start making a record, things start getting lined up: the promotion, possibly even a tour.

When we're touring America or Europe, we use our own plane and a great advantage of that is it cuts out an awful lot of time checking in. You literally drive up to the plane, get on and then drive off at the other end.

I'm usually going to make a record, finish a record, start a record or start a tour or between tours.

And, you know, I never wanted to be a singer.