NOEL GALLAGHER

I've never felt like I had anything important to say.

Every album I've ever been involved in, on the day that it came out I believed in it.

I love the Bee Gees, but only the pre-disco stuff. From '64 to '69, I've got all their albums.

I do think my old fella wasn't much of a... I don't remember him ever being a 'dad' dad. He was too busy working. It was a hard life, man.

I know there's bands that might write something that sounds like The Smiths, and they'll go, 'Oh, it sounds like The Smiths, we've got to make it sound not like The Smiths.'

There's no reason, ever, to be late. Or early.

Oasis were the last great, traditional rock-n'-roll band. We came along before the Internet so, if you wanted to see us, you had to be there. It makes me feel like a righteous old man.

I have 3 kids and a cat and a busy, noisy house. I get more time to relax when I'm working.

I don't have the genetic make up of a frontman, but I'm learning how to do it.

You can't afford to think about what might have been. You just be aware of what is.

I've always been into guitars... we want to put keyboards on, but keyboard players don't look cool onstage, they just keep their heads down. There has never been a cool keyboard player, apart from Elton John.

Twenty years from now, will we listen to Lady Gaga? No. She might think she is making a stand for the freaks and the weirdos. But they're not going to have any decent music to play, are they?

Solo artists are generally totally insane. Elton John? Slightly eccentric. George Michael? He's mad as custard.

You don't have to be great to be successful. Look at Phil Collins.

Great music is in the ear of the beholder.

I go into Daunt Books in Marylebone every couple of weeks. My wife Sara demolishes books, but I only buy stuff occasionally. I like boys' things, spies and the Cold War.

When you're in a band and there's five of you, you have to accommodate five people in every song.

Frontmen come alive when they come onstage.

I don't think people need to know what colour socks I'm wearing today; I don't think people need to know what shower gel I'm using. There's too much information in the world, and there's no magic or mystery anymore.

I don't dislike rappers or hip-hop or people who like it. I went to the Def Jam tour in Manchester in the '80s when rap was inspirational. Public Enemy were awesome. But it's all about status and bling now, and it doesn't say anything to me.

I've never understood musicians who don't enjoy doing promotional interviews. I just can't believe it. I always think, 'Your life must have been so brilliant before you were in a band.'

Even in the nineties, when it was mad and there were photographers all around the house, it never occurred to me to send someone else out to get cigarettes. It took me five minutes - went for a walk, gave a wave, went back inside.

I started off as many fathers do. I enjoyed the good bits, but I was wary of the responsibility. But now I love being a dad.

My wife would say I'm not romantic at all, but I would say that I'm the ultimate romancer because I write about... life being brilliant.

I've grown to love California: It's the dream of every English musician to come here and work in the sunshine. To walk up Sunset Boulevard, knowing you're going to make music - that's it.