Alex Turner

“'Hatful of Hollow' and 'The Smiths' were lent to me, and they made me want to create music that might make another person feel like they made me feel - to have an effect on someone.”

“Someone asked me what the key to being a good frontman was, and I think having a sense of humor about it is pretty near the top of that list. It's a very strange place to be in, and I don't take that role too seriously.”

“I usually sit around with the guitar in reach and grab it when I get an idea. Sometimes it lasts five minutes, and sometimes it lasts all day.”

“I think New York is a good place to write in general because it's a grid. It's organized. You know where you are on the map. That centers you, and your imagination is perhaps freer to roam.”

“I still very much appreciate the storytelling of the best rappers.”

“There's something about a Gucci loafer kicking on a fuzz pedal.”

“Guitar music or rock n' roll or whatever you want to call it sort of goes away with trends, but it'll never go away completely. It can't die because it's so fundamentally attractive.”

“I just don't think I'm equipped to soundtrack the times. There might be someone out there who can do that, but I haven't cracked it.”

“I'm not even sure where home is. Probably Terminal 5. There is a strange sense of calm about arriving back at Heathrow.”

“I get nervous about gigs sometimes, but not with records - I always get excited.”

“Sometimes I don't want to be in the confines of what a band seems to provide.”

“Songwriters always reminded me of that kid at school who would go around with his guitar, like, 'Yeah, songwritin' man,' looking wistful. That wasn't me - those kinds of people put me off. In the early days, I'd write a bunch of lyrics and almost look at them as a sort of joke, to make the rest of the boys laugh.”

“Sometimes, writing songs is like waiting in for deliveries. They give you a window, and your washing machine is going to show up, whether the window is the album or something you're thinking, like, 'This thing is going to come to me.'”

“Television? It's a gateway to writer's block, isn't it?”

“The idea that talent is directly proportional to your trophy cabinet is one I oppose.”

“I can be a woodsman if need be. I grew up very close to some forest, and I spent a lot of my formative years up and down trees, fooling around in the woods. I'm no stranger to that sort of landscape.”

“I can't draw. I'm good on the yo-yo, but I don't draw.”

“If anyone asks me about songwriting, I guess I'd say that you just gotta do it.”

“I'm in a difficult position in the sense that, preposterous as this might sound, I don't like being the centre of attention. I get up on stage every night and play songs, but I almost feel the songs are the centre of attention. I don't like opening my birthday presents in front of people, either.”

“It's a very unnatural environment to be in, up on a stage. So you put up defenses to hide. Like looking at the ground with your hair in your eyes, or being tightly wound and quite aggressive and uncooperative, as I used to do.”