Quotes from Phil Collins


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I'm writing new songs for a Broadway version of Tarzan, which is very interesting. I think what I learned from the Brother Bear score side of things, I've brought into the new Tarzan songs. Thinking outside just guitar, bass, drums and keyboards.


When we're touring America or Europe, we use our own plane and a great advantage of that is it cuts out an awful lot of time checking in. You literally drive up to the plane, get on and then drive off at the other end.


My only saving grace is that I actually collect things that nobody else is interested in.


The story of the Alamo has touched many more people than one would think. So, I would like to pay my respects to those men on both sides of the walls in those months of February and March 1836.


And I would like to marry and have more children. I would like to try and do it right.


If a musician dares to get out of the box he's been put in, people get confused. They want people where they can find them! I am fortunate in some respects as I've always been known as someone who 'moves around' and tries different things. But generally, we are supposed to stay where we're put.


That's going to be on my headstone: 'He came. He wrote 'In the Air Tonight.' He... died.'


I don't really listen to music.


Many of the articles printed over the last few months have ended up painting a picture of me that is more than a little distorted.


You know, a song is like a kid. You bring it up. And sometimes something you thought was going to be fantastic, by the time it's finished, is a bit of a disappointment.


I can't play anywhere near like I used to, and I was a hot drummer. It doesn't bother me, because frankly, if you get to that point where you can't hold a drumstick properly, there are many other things in life which are far more important, like cutting a loaf of bread or a piece of cheese.


Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours.


And, you know, I never wanted to be a singer.


Everything has added up to a load that I'm getting tired of carrying. It's gotten so complicated. It's the three failed marriages, and having kids that grew up without me, and it's the personal criticism, of being Mr. Nice Guy, or of divorcing my wife by fax, all that stuff, the journalism, some of which I find insulting.


There's no magic for getting into the groove... just banging away at it. Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes the music.


That's the trouble with wishing you were somebody else. As much as you may want it, you know it'll never happen, at least not in this lifetime.


As soon as you start making a record, things start getting lined up: the promotion, possibly even a tour.


I have never been a Conservative, or at least not since being a young teenager. My father voted Conservative, and even his doing that was a hangover from the '50s and '60s, which may have been an influence on me.


I'm not a singer who plays a bit of drums. I'm a drummer that sings a bit.


The world is in your hands, now use it.