Mike Oldfield

"I want not to panic. I want to be comfortable in my body and my life. I dont want to keep thinking that I dont belong here, that I have ended up on the wrong planet, completely alienated. (from Changeling)"

"Everything on Tubular Bells was done on the first take – it was lovely, so spontaneous. I had such a long time to prepare it, and I had just one little chance to do it, and now I listen to it and it has a lovely spontaneous energy. Its got mistakes, and I could easily have cut them out, but I left them on."

"If it was a horrible thing I was known for, like some horrible pop song, it would annoy me, but it doesnt. Im proud of it."

"Hello everyone! I suppose that you think that nothing much is happening at the moment. Ah ah ah! Well, thats what I want to talk to you all about: endings. Now, endings normally happen at the end. But, as we all know, endings are just beginnings. You know, once these things really get started, its jolly hard to stop them again. However, as we have all come this far, I think, under the circumstances, the best solution is that we all just keep going. Lets keep going inside, never an ending. Lets remember that this world wants fresh beginnings. I feel here, in this Country, and throughout the world, we are crying out for beginnings, beginnings! We never want to hear this word "endings". I know you dont want to sit down. Of course, youre looking for the good start. Of course youre looking for a fresh start. Isnt that charming? Do you know, I really feel I could dance..."

"When we made [Tubular Bells], Michael was a mental wreck. He would walk round with his eyes wet with tears nearly all the time; he was in a terrible state. He found it an enormous disquiet, … the idea of being mortal flesh … [while] what was going on his head was eternal and beautiful and everlasting. … My heart went out to him."

"Saved by a bell Suffer in hell But you were too blind to tell! Saved by a bell Suffer in hell And you made it through so well!"

"With a smile of joy and gladness, with a look of exultation, as of one who in a vision what is to be, but it is not, stood and waited Hiawatha. Toward the sun his hands were lifted both the palms spread out toward it and, between departed fingers, felt the sunshine on his features. Flecked with light his naked shoulders, as it falls and flecks an oak-tree through the rifted leaves and branches."

"Were looking For the strangers With sunlight in their eyes Who lived on Earth When Man was new When Time was Just a coloured dew That grew inside their mind..."

"Hey, cool princess With your eyes hanging The milk of the moon Hey, pretty princess Take me down to your cave in the dawn And youre gonna be a queen When the stars water Heaven with tears And you gonna love me When all our Golden lands are free."

"When I was younger I had an incredible sensitivity; I suppose there were too many brain cells, or they were organised in the wrong way, and theyve either reorganised themselves or Ive lost lots of them through alcohol and substance abuse. I can get along without being terrified now. Maybe Ive just got used to it."

"In this world, everything has a pulse or a vibration. This sound is unique to each living or non-living thing and in itself creates a music that no-one can hear. I believe that this has a very powerful resonance with, and a deep effect on, our lives. What would happen if we took this further and applied it to bigger things, more powerful things; like an entire solar system or galaxy say, what would that sound like? Musica Universalis is the ancient theory that every celestial body, the sun, the moon and the stars, has an inner music. This is a harmonic and mathematical concept derived from the movements of the planets in the solar system. The music created is inaudible to the human ear. Music of the Spheres is my interpretation of this theory. Every planet and every star; the whole universe has music within it that no-one can hear. This is what it would sound like if it was set free. This is Music of the Spheres. (from the introduction to Music of the Spheres)"

"Can it be the sun descending oer the level plain of water or the Red Swan floating, flying wounded by the Magic Arrow? Staining all the waves with crimson, with the crimson of its life-blood, filling all the air with splendor, filling all the air with plumage? [...] Oer it the Star of Evening melts and trembles through the purple, hangs suspensed in twilight, walks in silence through the heavens..."