MARK E. SMITH

I'm just never getting there. I'm getting round to it. I'm beginning to understand it a bit more.

I read daft history books. Sometimes the books I read are a bit crackers or strange.

The thing with me, I can't talk about my work. I find it very difficult.

Fear is something I try not to absorb.

Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?

I do feel like an outsider, but I don't lose any sleep over it.

The thing with me. I can't stick musicians. I've thought about this. I can't stand them, and being stuck in a studio with them I think that's my strength I can hear what they can't.

My earliest memory is learning to read 'Muffin the Mule' when I was about three.

When I was 14, I used to have a calendar on my wall, crossing the days off until I was 15, because the school leaving age was 15. Then three months before I turned 15 they changed the leaving age to 16.

Being in The Fall isn't like being in another group. It isn't a holiday. A lot of musicians are really hard to deal with. They aren't as smart as me.

I was picked on because I was timid. I had younger sisters; I couldn't turn to them for help. I didn't have an older brother.

Every day is great for me. I dislike rose-coloured glasses.

I don't want security guards. I don't think security guards are particularly good for your writing.

He told me I didn't understand, that we were from the bleak industrial wastes of North England, or something, and that we didn't understand the Internet. I told him Fall fans invented the Internet. They were on there in 1982.

'Re-Mit' is going to terrify people. It's quite horrible. The Fall have had enough and we're coming for you.

I used to be psychic, but I drank my way out of it.

When I was 18, the vision was to make music that didn't exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.

If it's me and yer granny on bongos, it's the Fall.

It's just like music when you reckon it up. It's like listening to Pavement it's just The Fall in 1985, isn't it? They haven't got an original idea in their heads.

I like to push people till I get the truth out of them.

The only good Philip K. Dick film is 'Total Recall.' It's faithful to the book. Arnie gets it.

The manners thing's got worse. People think they can just text you if they've got bad news for you. It's not on. And as for people taking pictures at gigs on their phones, that's just weird.

They're weird aren't they, Prince fans?

All these cities I go to, I never see them. They may be the most beautiful places in the world, but I'll just usually go to the nearest bar. I need a couple of hours by myself.

Prince's manager once told me that I was the only person other than Prince who can recruit from the streets. Which was very flattering.