Robert Wyatt

There are singers that I have enjoyed, from Nina Simone and Ray Charles onward. But the music that made music the number one thing for me as a youth was jazz.

I think that pop, and to some extent rock, are like sport and fashion industry in that they're about the exuberance of youth. That's the sort of subliminal ideology.

Even if you're specific about the character of the song, it's more exciting to place them, juxtapose them in such a way as to make an adventure out of the sequence of the songs.

In the past, so many of my records, really, have been sketches for records that never really got made.

People say, oh it's a shame, you're not nostalgic about the '60s. Well actually, it's quite good, when you think of it. Wouldn't it be sad if I was sitting here wishing it back?

We did not get any money from the early records. It was all taken by crooked managers. It is just a gangster's paradise.

When I'm singing I try not be a singer with a capital S. I just try to get it out so I feel comfortable with it.

Being big and famous doesn't get you more freedom, it gets you less.

I find writing songs hard, because it does not come naturally to me. I never set out to be a songwriter or a singer.

I play music a lot but on my own mostly, so it was nice to be around other people. There was a certain sense a relief in the physical act of just playing and being with other musicians.

I really liked them, not just Syd, but all of them. Roger was very important, I thought, his contribution. And so was Rick's organ playing. It was a good band. It became something else completely, obviously.

I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest.