- I am a private person, but I don't think I'm obsessively so. It's more that I choose to try and have as normal a life as possible. I don't like to live in the glare of publicity. [As quoted in "Album nearly killed me, says Bush" (1 November 2005)]
- [Speaking in 1993] It's interesting how many young people are getting into old records, because there's a buzz they just can't get from contemporary music. Look how many old songs are hits again.
- [on the songs of The Beatles] They were just so beautifully, beautifully written, and they still stand up, and for pop music it's so well crafted. On every level: not just the songs but the arrangements and the vocal performances.
- I don't think of myself as a musician. I only ever play the piano to accompany myself singing. I could never sit and read a piece of music. At best, I'm an accompanist.
- I like classical music, but I wish I was more eloquent with it. I hear things and think, 'That's beautiful,' but don't know what it is. As you get older, you do get more into instrumental music, don't you? It's as if as you get older you don't want people telling you what they think or what you've got to think or do. Also, those great composers really knew what they were doing. A lot of contemporary art is made by people who haven't got any talent. Art made by talentless people can sometimes really work, but it's not the same as real craft.
- There's a lot of other stuff that I like to do. But I find making records really exciting. It's making something out of nothing and you can involve other people. It's brilliant.
- [Regarding Elton John]: At one point I had this, well, I don't know if you'd call it a crush, a bit of one on Elton John. I thought he was fantastic. I thought he was so clever. It was before he got really famous...around 'Madman Across the Water'. I thought he was so wonderful. I'd play the records and dream of being able to play like him, those fantastic hands. But a crush like that is quite sweet, isn't it? I had David Bowie on my wall, as well.
- [Kate about [David Bowie]: David Bowie had everything. He was intelligent, imaginative, brave, charismatic, cool, sexy and truly inspirational both visually and musically. He created such staggeringly brilliant work, yes, but so much of it and it was so good. There are great people who make great work but who else has left a mark like his? No one like him. I'm struck by how the whole country has been flung into mourning and shock. Shock, because someone who had already transcended into immortality could actually die. He was ours. Wonderfully eccentric in a way that only an Englishman could be. Whatever journey his beautiful soul is now on, I hope he can somehow feel how much we all miss him.
- Some taboo subjects definitely attract me...I don't think I do like particularly gory things. With Don't Look Now (1973) and Psycho (1960), it's not the gore so much as the emotional effect - the distortion. I don't think I'd ever go and see The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Friday the 13th (1980), things like that. I think it's sick: you know everybody is going to die disgustingly. I prefer films that work around the subject, build you up... [(1982, NME)]
- [Regarding Donovan] Donovan has got the most beautiful voice -- that very slow vibrato that people like Cliff Richard can put on, but [Donovan] has it very naturally. I mean he sings like this all the time. And again, he's an incredible song writer, lyric writer. He can play the guitar and he has that fantastic voice. And it seemed that he'd really got caught up in the copying of Dylan when he first signed up and was singing. And he was wearing the hats and he was carrying the guitar and everyone thought he was just a Dylan copy, when in fact he wasn't at all. And it seems that he's just been forgotten, he's gone under. It's ridiculous. I can't stand to see that happen to people, especially someone like him. (Paul Gambaccini, BBC Radio 2, 1980)
- Artists shouldn't be made famous. You know... they're just ... as important as... um doctors, and priests ... or maybe not as important sometimes, and yet they have this huge aura of almost god-like quality about them, just because their craft makes a lot of money. And at the same time it is a forced importance - you know, football stars and theatre stars - It is man-made so the press can feed off it. [As quoted in 'Profiles in Rock' interview (December 1980)]
- The Fairlight had a very specific quality to its sound which I really liked, so it was very much a sort of atmospheric tool for me.
- I think probably the best stage entrance I ever saw was Tina Turner. I saw her a long time ago at some open air gig that she was doing. She was just fantastic, the way she burst on stage. She appeared at the top of a flight of stairs, shimmied the whole way down these steps, came straight to the front of stage, and went straight into the song. It was so exciting.
- I really love film, I think it's just a fantastic art form.
- [on working with Trio Bulgarka] I've never worked with women on such an intense creative level and it was something strange to feel this very strong female energy in the studio. It was interesting to see the way the men in the studio reacted... Instead of just one female, there was a very strong female presence.
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