Chris Martin

I don’t drink, I don’t take drugs, I don’t smoke.

Before our albums are released I feel like we still own it, that we have control over our music. But once it’s out there in the world it’s no longer ours.

What makes us a bit nervous is, in this instant age, to release something that might take more than one listen. Where everything is instantly judged on YouTube or something! It’s a bit like releasing a horse and cart on a racetrack.

I can’t believe we’ve got away with becoming this huge band. And we still haven’t done anything I think is that good yet.

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

Well, once we finish something, I can’t really listen to it because all I hear are problems.

I’ve discovered as I’ve grown up that life is far more complicated than you think it is when you’re a kid. It isn’t just a straight-forward fairytale.

Besides, I’m a gypsy at heart and I like to travel around.

All the boys did real good for their first time out. You couldn’t ask for any better. We’ve got a few bugs to work out, but that’s what this was for. We’re going to keep practicing and get better.

When I’m playing a character, I use the American accent. But when I go back to England, I just glide right back into Englishness immediately. Every actor uses a dialect coach. Every actor, and if they say they don’t, they’re lying. Everybody does, yeah. You don’t want to worry about it. You have someone listening out to check that you’re not straying.

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

For some reason, I like seeing people feel emotional.

The suit-and-tie job is very nice, but it’s not really who I am in my heart.

I believe that in life you should always take the serious things lightly and the light things seriously. This attitude of mine gets me into a lot of trouble.

A friend of mine had this great theory about the “Teletubbies”, that it’s preparing us for being mindless. And getting us ready for living in an underground world. When they build the underground world because we can no longer breathe the air that it will look like Teletubbie land.

I was quite intimidated by Ralph Fiennes. I didn’t really talk to him while I was doing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the only thing I did with him was when he stepped on my head. Then I went to this play and he was there. And this girl said, “you’ve worked with Ralph Fiennes haven’t you, Robert?” and I was like, “well, no…” and Ralph said, “yes, I stepped on your head.” And that was the extent of our conversation.

Personally, I would much rather live and die by my own hand. If my stuff sucks, then at least I made it suck. I didn’t allow some person, some old dude in a suit, to make it suck for me.

You want us as muses because you fear us as artists.

[On his belief in soul mates] I hope there is such a thing. I guess it would be quite scary to find a soul mate when you’re young because you’re probably going to mess it up.

Prostitutes in Lyons, France, sent a fax to the government to complain that they are losing business to Eastern European women who are protected by the Albanian mafia. Okay, first of all, how rough-looking are these French prostitutes that all their customers are running to the Albanians? Secondly, why did they send a fax, and from whence? Do they have a fax machine in the whorehouse, or did they all trundle down to Kinko’s – “You fax these, I’ll let you shave me.” Thirdly, how come French whores know how to work a fax machine, but every time I try to use it, I hit Powersave, or I forget to dial 9? This just proves what my boyfriend always says – that I am dumber than a French whore.

I think the world has too many actresses.