NICK LOWE

If anyone comes along, I'm more than happy to welcome them, but I'm not interested in world domination.

If a hit came along, I wouldn't be unhappy about that. But I'm a bit too old for that now-doing videos and all those types of TV shows. I've kind of done all that, in the '70s.

I like being a big fish in a small pond. I'm not interested in a huge audience because it brings headaches.

These days, rock 'n' roll is much more about rock than about roll. I don't do rock. But I'm interested in that roll part, because that's the funny little bit that makes it hip.

Be a military flier or be in a band; those were the two hippest things I could imagine.

When somebody like Elvis Costello comes along, anybody can make a good record with him.

In the '70s, you had to come up with an album every year whether you were ready or not.

All those years we'd spent learning these chops, and all those gigs in Germany where you'd play all night, and along comes punk. It has nothing to do with that. A lot of people went out of business.

Going to Nashville to meet the in-laws was the first time when I'd been in America and not been seen as some sort of eccentric character with a cute accent.

Elvis Costello had a brand new bag. He was a musician, but he knew all about the attitude part of it.

The number of contemporary artists who appeal to me is infinitesimal.

I suppose I was waiting until I was old enough to have some sort of experience to sing about. When you're young, it's hard to sing the blues. Nobody believes you.

They tell me I produced songs. I just stood in the back, wore a good suit and said, Yeah, that's happening.

I work very hard on getting the songs as direct and examined as I can before I go in the studio.

When punk rock came along, the one thing you were not supposed to be was musical.

I'm playing to the sort of people who like the same records.

As long as my body holds out, I'll be grooving when I'm 70, and not some sort of horrible spectacle.

The world is full of musicians who can play great, and you wouldn't cross the road to see them. It's people who have this indefinable attitude that are the good ones.

You've got to really know your song, inside and out.

And religious music and the sort of symbolism of it and everything. But I had this idea. Actually, I sort of dreamt it. I woke up - just before waking up one morning, I sort of dreamt this song or the idea of it and the first little bit of it. And I jumped out of bed and I thought, well, you're still asleep. You're going to forget this in a minute - you know, like you do when you've had a dream.

London was a real dump in the 70s, when it belonged to me and my friends, because, like most cities, you kind of hand them off. You're in charge for a bit and then you don't go out anymore. You say, "Oh god, it's going to be too crowded."

When I find a cover song that I like, I'll work away at it until I kind of believe that I wrote it.

I'm very interested in religion and different religions, and I know quite a lot about it. I love gospel music, and I love going to churches, but the one drawback is that I don't actually believe in God. And it is quite a handicap, you know.

Cruel to be kind means that I love you.

When my pop career was over, I was scratching my head, thinking, "God, how am I going to do something after I'm forty?" I was in my mid-thirties, thinking I was on the scrap heap.