The last thing I want my child to see is Dad running around in the middle of the pack. That would really upset me. And that would upset him. I would be embarrassed to take him to school with kids saying 'Hey how'd your dad do this weekend?' 'Well he finished fifth or sixth'.

The moment my doctor told me I went silent. My mum and dad were with me then we all went to pieces. I was saying No I've got my flight to Sydney in two hours. I'm getting on a plane.

'I Know You Care' is about my dad. And I haven't seen him for a long long time. And my parents divorced when I was really young. And I guess I just wanted a - it was my way of saying that I wasn't bitter or angry anymore. I was just sad and just felt like something was missing.

I grew up in a house where my father encouraged my brother and me to fail. I specifically remember coming home and saying 'Dad Dad I tried out for this or that and I was horrible ' and he would high-five me and say 'Way to go.'

You always hear people saying 'I hope I'm not turning into my dad' but I'd be honoured if I became half as decent a bloke as he is.

When my mom ran for the Senate my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice 'Why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation?'

Americans are gathering the courage to just say no. We are saying no to addictive consumer lifestyles. We are saying no to wars and corporate takeover and the IMF loans that gobble up people and their resources.

Everybody even me sometimes had to compromise on something doing things we know to be wrong and this happens doing whatever job in the world. But a singer must have the courage of saying no.

This soul or life within us by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

There is a bit of a movement as far as younger people in country music. That is cool because people are saying things like 'I didn't listen to country music until so-and-so came along.' And I'm like 'Yeah! Now you know why I love it.'

I'm not saying that people have to listen to rock music. It's a great cool thing and it can really be liberating for a lot of people but hey so can Charles Dickens so I'm not going to judge.

People always come up to me now and say 'Watchmen' is the best superhero movie ever made.' I'm always saying 'That's super cool. That's nice of you to say.' But it happens now more and more and more than it did when it first came out.

But when you're a working actor - and that's what you keep saying in your head how blessed you are to have a job - and you are working with heavyweights working with the best guys in TV it's pretty cool. Exhausting but cool.

I'm not saying I look cool but every single time I go onstage it is a fail if I don't feel like I'm going to pass out at least twice.

They were saying computers deal with numbers. This was absolutely nonsense. Computers deal with arbitrary information of any kind.

It's interesting to see what people are saying about me. I like keep up with the latest rumors! A while back there was a rumor that I was going to do a film with Demi Moore about the takeover of Commodore computers!

In this great age of communication there a lot of people you can't actually understand. I know everyone tweets and twits and texts and all that but actually we've all got voices and it is awfully nice to hear them and if you can understand what people are saying.

People aren't going to talk about it except me and that is communication and the visits I have personally had in our meetings with our store managers saying if you do these things you will be terminated period.

You're talking about a younger generation Generation Y whose interpersonal communication skills are different from Generation X. The younger generation is more comfortable saying something through a digital mechanism than even face to face.

My kid could get a bad X-ray and I could get a call from the doctor saying I have something growing in my bum and that would change my perspective on everything instantaneously on what is and what is not important.

My mom was always saying: 'Be whatever you want to be but stick with it. Don't waver. Don't change who you are for anybody.'

Rather than saying 'My checking account is a wreck ' change it to 'I will learn how to track my spending and balance my checkbook.'

I went through life like an idiot for a great deal of the time saying there's nothing I would change. That was a very arrogant thing to say. There's a lot I would change. There are people I would have steered clear of.

In the back of your mind when you say you want to write music for the movies you're saying that you want a big house a big car and a boat. If you just wanted to write music you could live in Kansas and do it.