International Scene Quotes

It's my luck to be at the frontier of what looks to be a resurrection of roots music on the international scene. That's really what reggae music is about: that voice against oppression and struggle.

There's a lot of reasons I had to move on. Family's definitely a big part of it. And the longevity of my career - I played for 15 years, and I was just tired of the whole international scene. It's quite busy. Very stressful.

The world stage is very difficult. It's not easy to be on the world stage.

If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately. So I think it's a cost-benefit ratio. The more that we put into the State Department's diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of an apparent American withdrawal from the international scene.

Reform is one of the priorities of the Arab world. All countries and societies want to move ahead and have their own views of how to move ahead. Reform is an item for all of us to support but we have to be cautious because of the fragility of the security situation and uncertainty on the international scene.

On the international scene you travel away, come back, feel sluggish and it's very difficult, so my decision was so that I could save myself for West Ham. I know Scotland fans won't like that, but they needed a young, fit, energetic lad to come in there.

The Blues scene now is international. In the '50s it was purely something that you would hear in black clubs, played by black musicians, especially in America. But from the '60s onwards it changed.

The coolest party I've ever D.J.ed would have to be for the artist Damien Hirst. It was an amazing party in Berlin. I had such a great time, and people danced all night long.

We do not have many women leaders in the world. But if you look at the current examples, most of those few female leaders that we have today lead their countries under the pressure of difficult political and economic circumstances. They all posses strong personalities and have real political influence on the domestic and international scene.

In Jamaica, them always have throwback riddims, recycled old beats, and the hardcore reggae scene is always present. You have faster stuff like the more commercialized stuff, but you always have that segment of music that is always from the core, from the original root of it. This year, you have seen a lot of it explode on the international scene. It's great. People are looking for something different. Maybe there was too much of one thing, and now they're looking for something fresh.

I never felt I would be part of the international scene for 50 caps in my wildest dreams.