A biography for Gilbert O'Sullivanhasn’t been written yet.
“I didn't come into the music business to make money. I came into it to be a success. Of course, if you're successful, you'll earn money and I was happy to receive it.”
“Whenever I write lyrics and an Americanism slips in, I always cut it straight out. I can't use the word 'babe,' for instance. It makes me cringe.”
“When I started out I thought just hearing one of my records on the radio would be magical. Fortunately, that naivety has always stayed with me. Because when you've had massive success and it tapers off people lose interest in you. So you have to work even harder to generate interest.”
“I'm very much a home bird. I sometimes think I should have been a domestic. I like sweeping up, getting everything tidy. I'm obsessive compulsive. I don't mind admitting it.”
“I feel every time I have 12 good songs for a new album, I am in with a chance to compete with the big boys. As long as I have that attitude, it's healthy.”
“Doing the Best I Can' is a sure fire hit. Incredibly commercial. But what could you say about it? Catchy and good to dance to. But 'Nothing Rhymes' is different. A much bigger risk but it was lyrics people could talk about. So that was the one to launch me on.”
“I never complete a song until I'm actually going to make a record.”
“I used to get these reviews in American newspapers saying that they didn't understand what my lyrics were about. I saw that as a compliment. That's exactly what English songwriters should be doing!”
“I often meet people who say, 'I thought you were dead.'”
“I'm basically as shy a person as I was when I once worked in an office in London in the late Sixties. I like my own company. I didn't need a lot of friends.”
“My motto is, 'You may not be as good as you think you are, but thinking you are is good.'”
“The measure of success was writing a song, recording it and for it being in the hit parade in England. Success was about the postman walking up the garden whistling my song. I wasn't trying to conquer the world.”
“I think if every song I had was, 'I love you, you love me,' there would be a problem.”
“My Norwegian wife Aase was a Pan Am stewardess back in the Seventies when we met. She was very attractive, and we became good friends, but I was travelling a lot and she was jetting back and forth across the Atlantic, so it was a while before we got together.”
“I am immensely proud of my Irish roots.”
“I've never recorded anyone else's songs. I'm not interested. If you gave me a song by Bono and Edge and promised me a number one hit with it I'd still say no. That, for me, is not the kind of success I want.”
“Success isn't dependent on the market place, because I can't control that. It's about completing a good song.”
“I like conflict in songs.”
“What I can't understand is why people still won't give me the credibility that I look for. If Mojo or any other of those magazines would give me the credit for only ever performing my own songs rather than someone like Rod Stewart singing other people's songs looking for success.”
“I don't like people who make records and then don't ever perform. If you are going to make a record it's important you get out there so people can see you if they want to and get to hear you if they want to.”