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.
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Success isn't dependent on the market place, because I can't control that. It's about completing a good song.
I always tell people that I went through long hair. I was a typical art school scruff. It was good then.
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 see myself in competition with Blur and Oasis. But everyone else just sees me as this guy with a history.
I couldn't live without tea. I have two cups in the morning, one at lunch, two in the afternoon and one in the evening - Assam with milk and sugar. It has to be leaf tea - no bags - and drunk from a china cup.
I wanted to look different. I liked being original.
I bought my mum a new house when the money started to come in; it's that old cliche.
Success for me is to write what I think is a good song. When I'm pleased with it, that, for me, is a magical moment. I never lost that buzz.
There are two types of session guitar players. One reads and only plays what the 'dots' say. The other adds that something special and plays notes and solos you dream of. Big Jim Sullivan was such a player.
The quality of my songs will get through to people. They are good songs. Lyrically, some of them are interesting: there's stories, a bit of humour. I'm very confident about the music I play, you know.
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.
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!
The basis of everything I do is down to the song. If I don't have the song I don't sing, and if I don't sing I don't perform.
I've only recorded my own songs. I don't consider myself a great singer, so I wouldn't be comfortable interpreting other people's songs.
I always want to keep moving musically and trying new things.
I am immensely proud of my Irish roots.
Lennon and McCartney became great songwriters because they were prepared to listen to and learn from all types of music.
We all try to increase our length of life, but we all have to pass. It's highly interesting as a lyricist.
You see, I read reviews of people like Paul Simon, and they don't talk about the fact that he's looking old or whether he is fashionable; they talk about the music, which is how it should be.
I do like to write about dark subjects.
My motto is, 'You may not be as good as you think you are, but thinking you are is good.'
I know I can cut it with any songwriters in the world.
I have learned to avoid the coverage, good or bad - and it's mostly bad.
The perception that if you're not on 'Top Of The Pops' you're dead and buried is a good one for pop music, because 'TOTP' is a catalyst or barometer for pop success.
The music is the thing. I am not writing for critics; I don't want to become a personality.
I used to play music all night and sleep during the day. I was very career-minded. The music dominated everything and anything that interfered with that, I put a stop to 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.
I only think in the following terms: writing, recording, releasing. That's what I have control of. What I don't have control is whether critics or the public like what I do.
I've always been a bit of a loner.
I think I'm a good lyricist.
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.
Technology has very little to do with what I do. I have a purpose built studio but all I need for writing is my piano and a cassette recorder as I still use cassettes.
I've always been interested in relationships and the break-up of relationships.
I do pick up on contemporary issues.
I'd go to meetings with record companies - CBS, Decca, EMI. They'd tell me to wear a pair of jeans and grow my hair and look normal. And I'd say, 'Sod that,' and storm out. And I do think that belligerence is important when you're young.
Nobody likes going to court.
I work in the studio all day, and then I go for a walk with my dog, listening to music on headphones. And Saturday and Sundays, work is strictly out of bounds. It has to be.
I do believe that any conflict has a better chance of being resolved if two people can come face to face.
At school, I was basically a loner, it was hard until I was 15 or so. Then I went to art school and was gifted with freedom to do the things I really wanted to do.
Just because you sell millions of records it doesn't guarantee bums on seats.
I think if every song I had was, 'I love you, you love me,' there would be a problem.
I often meet people who say, 'I thought you were dead.'
As long as I can write songs, make a record and do concerts, I'm really quite happy.
It's ridiculous that people would judge my songs based on what I wore, but that's how it is... superficial. I don't really care, though - I am confident in the quality of my own work.
I like conflict in songs.
The writing is everything of course but you can't be making records and not be willing to go out there and perform.
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.
I never complete a song until I'm actually going to make a record.
What I would hate to go through is what happened in the mid-90s playing in front of a half-empty theatre, which prompted me to say 'never again' when it came to Waterford. To go through that again in any of the places I call home would destroy me.
