Chris de Burgh

“A lot of people think they can become world stars overnight.”

“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 secondary schooling was at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, so I'm fond of that part of the world. It's quintessentially English, with village greens, pubs and cricket pitches, and resonates strongly with me.”

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

“I know what it's like to go to a concert, wait to hear your favourite song - and then they don't play it!”

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

“I always have to have what I believe are the pillars of an album - songs which I can go back to and admire personally as a piece of writing.”

“I've been travelling all my life.”

“I always bring divining rods when I'm on tour because you can change energy streams by moving furniture around your hotel room.”

“I'm far more interested in putting a little more meat into the lyrics than some people are.”

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

“It's every songwriter's dream to come up with a standard.”

“Philanthropy is never understood by those who don't have it in their own hearts.”

“I believe that music is an international language and deserves to be heard all over the world.”

“Every generation has to have its heroes.”

“In America, if you say 'Chris de Burgh,' they won't have a clue, but they all know 'Lady in Red.'”

“I will never forget seeing Alien when it came out in 1979. I'm not that big a fan of horror, but I remember the slow build, the claustrophobic feeling on the spacecraft, this tremendous sense of impending doom.”

“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.”

“You get tarred with the brush of 'Lady in Red.' I play Russia or China or places all over the world. They don't even speak English but they know the words. You get a big song like that, and people love it or hate it. And if they don't like it, they don't like anything at all by the artist.”

“I know every side of the industry after all these years.”