I deliberately try not to cater for the commercial market, so I can't see myself in competition, you know, with second or third generation rock stars.
When I was younger, all I cared about was what people thought of me and my films. Now I care less about catering, hand-serving, hand-feeding the audience. I've gotten to the point now in my life where I'm serving myself.
I think the live show is a different kind of catharsis. It's an event. It's supposed to be entertaining. To keep myself entertained, I like to play a rock n' roll show. I still kind of feel like I'm a rock n' roll musician anyway.
I don't want to take myself too seriously, thinking that I'm always having to be this cathartic, intense and deep person, because I certainly enjoy silliness.
In my early shows, I wanted to put myself through a new childhood, disintegrating my whole identity to let the real one emerge. I became a human jukebox, learning all these songs I'd always known, discovering the basics of what I do. The cathartic part was in the essential act of singing.
I'm shy, and I can hide behind my acting and discover the truth about myself because it's cathartic in that way. But I tend not to read reviews.
At the school I attended, the clergyman who ran the cathedral school in Shanghai would give lines to the boys as a punishment. They expected you to copy out, say, 20 or 30 pages from one of the school texts. But I found that rather than laboriously copying out something from a novel by Charles Dickens, it was easier if I made it up myself.
I am as independent as I want to be, same as Catherine and Harry. We've all grown up differently to other generations and I very much feel if that I can do it myself, I want to do it myself.
The principal end both of my father and of myself in the conquest of India... has been the propagation of the holy Catholic faith.
I needed something deeper than the Catholic faith, and Buddha helps me control myself.
When I speak, I don't speak for myself; I don't have the luxury of a Caucasian to be able to speak for myself. I speak for a whole community, and I represent so many different communities that that felt like a lot of pressure.
Sure, I went through my 'J'accuse' phase. I was so angry for so long, I could hardly have a conversation without getting into an argument. And it was only when I felt I could finally distance myself from my past that I began to write about what happened - not just to me, but to lots of young people. I think my story is a cautionary tale.
The cavemen, when they saw the antelopes, they had to scratch them on to the caves because they needed to express the immediacy of what they were being affected by - and I love that. That is why I do what I do. I need to express myself.
I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
I'm as skeptical as anyone would be about celebrities and causes - and I will dare to say to you that I don't think of myself as a celebrity per se.
I think of myself as a musician and not a celebrity. Celebrity status is something you have to deliberately pursue - I couldn't imagine myself seeking that.
This celebrity thing has been interesting. It's hard to get used to, because I don't see myself as a celebrity.
Even though Czech food is traditionally a bit heavy, especially for a climber, I can't resist some dishes: sveckova, for example, is beef in a creamy sauce with celery and dumplings. It's probably fortunate that I don't know how to cook it myself.
I know that people can live celibate lives. I did it myself for many years.
I'm all about leaving a legacy behind and trying to cement myself as one of the greats. I don't just want to be remembered as the guy who beat Michael Phelps at the 2012 London Olympics - a one-hit wonder - I want to be an inspiration to the kids.
