Paul McCartney

Where I come from, you don't really talk about how much you're earning. Those things are private. My dad never told my mum how much he was earning. I'm certainly not going to tell the world. I'm doing well.

Looking back, I think I was always musical. My dad was very musical, and I think my mom was musical.

I have not practiced how to be a singer without an instrument.

Lyricists play with words.

My dad was a particularly polite kind of guy, very courteous.

We were a savage little lot, Liverpool kids, not pacifist or vegetarian or anything. But I feel I've gone beyond that, and that it was immature to be so prejudiced and believe in all the stereotypes.

Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window; Why, why, says the junk in the yard.

Being in the audience actually looks like quite a lot of fun.

It's also not unusual for writers to look backward. Because that's your pool of resources.

I was still 15 when I met John Lennon at a village fete in Woolton, in Liverpool.

It's time to end the cruel slaughter of whales and leave these magnificent creatures alone.

George Martin, he's very good at a very sort of lush, sweet arrangement.

If children are studying the 20th century, I'm in their text books.

I saw that Meryl Streep said, I just want to do my job well. And really, that's all I'm ever trying to do.

I'm a pretty hands-on dad and make the most of my custody. I take care of my little one whenever I can, and she determines what I can do and where I can do it.

I never look forward, because I have no idea about how any of it happened to getting here. I've no idea how the next five years are going to be.

But with writers, there's nothing wrong with melancholy. It's an important color in writing.

My old school in Liverpool is now a performing-arts school, and I kind of teach there - I use the word lightly - but I go there and talk to students.

I got my first guitar when I was 15, and I just used to fool about with it, more or less, as time went by, though, I got more interested.

So, if I'm cooking, I'll be steaming vegetables, making some nice salad, that kind of stuff.