There are moments, when you're playing your songs to thousands of people, which are amazingly satisfying. I'm very self-critical, so I find it hard to go along with moments like that.

Whenever we're on the red carpet, we look like competition winners. It's a joke.

The mixtapes, and a lot of our music, it comes from a place of fandom and appreciation and of respect and of nodding toward stuff that we feel really affectionate towards.

It was ages ago now, but when we started Bastille, I didn't necessarily want people to know or care if it was a band, and it came from a place, really, of just much rather having people listen to the songs rather than caring about the people making it.

I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life.

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.

Since merchandise creativity is hampered by the reluctance of manufacturers to do special things for an individual store, it might be well to increase purchases in foreign markets more able to accept innovative ideas.

I've been lucky to have made a number of travel programmes with the BBC, the object being to see places off the beaten track. As a result, I've often had a guide who's been able to show me things that you wouldn't see with a tour group.