Chris Martin

I never talk about my wife: we’re both in public professions but we try to keep our private life private.

The goal is to try and make the perfect song. Which of course will never happen.

We rely more on enthusiasm than actual skill. Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically and people will like it more.

I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world.

I always dream about other musicians. And they’re never interested in hanging out with us. It’s like being at school and the bigger boys don’t want to play with you!

There comes a point where it doesn’t matter how many zeroes are at the end of your bank account.

If you sold out the Troubadour, that was it.

I’ve got to the point now where I can poke some fun at my old image and really enjoy letting go when a juicy role comes along.

When I’m no longer rapping I want to open up an ice-cream parlor and call myself Scoop Dogg.

The blues was bleeding the same blood as me.

[On how she handles people who disagree with her] I’ve learned the art of ignoring people. When people give you some piece of direction you don’t like, you just nod and ignore it. Just don’t do it! Most people want to be heard and acknowledged, anyway. Just do what you want to do.

When you are followed constantly by fanatic fans,you try to eliminate the times you come up against them.That’s why I hide myself sometimes.

When was the last time you saw a musical about people at war with each other?

For a while I was like, “Oh my God, anyone that would release an album as an actor is the biggest fool ever”, but I happened to have sung all my life before I was an actor. Why are musicians allowed to become actors? No one ever gives them flack for that.

My worst habit is speaking to much.

It sounds lame, but I was really concentrating on this job. It was my first American thing so I was pretty focused. I went to Portland for two months before we starting shooting, and I just didn’t talk to anybody for ages during the beginning of the shoot. I never went out, but I kind of broke down half way through. I was like, ‘Okay, people are starting to think that I’m actually out of my mind now.

It may not be the best in someone else’s eyes, but it’s the best I can do.

I want to spend time with Oprah, and I don’t know what I need to do to make that happen.

You get the best and the worst of both worlds. I know there were a lot of times when you try to figure out where you fit in. I just realized that it worked to my advantage because I just got along with a lot of people. But to literally be two races, it’s really hard to see color because I’m the gray area. I had to learn about both sides of myself and be really proud of and educated in both.

I went up to his [Hank Jones’] house and there were four guys there: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Max Roach. Not a bad place to be. Scared shitless, but a nice place to be on my second day in New York.

The problem is, I don’t think I’ve got too much to offer at the minute. I’m busy working on myself. This sounds like real therapy talk, but it’s like, you’ve got to be happy with yourself before you can go out and get yourself a girl.