Phil Collins Quotes

Considering yourself selflessly selfish is a principle of all great thinkers

I'm just trying to do things that are interesting for me.

It's not often that an English drummer gets an Oscar. So I'm very, very proud of that.

That's the trouble with wishing you were somebody else. As much as you may want it, you know it'll never happen, at least not in this lifetime.

This stupid sensitivity! But then women like sensitivity.

As a writer, author, creator of something the fact that people are still interested, is fantastic.

There's no magic for getting into the groove... just banging away at it. Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes the music.

I feel terrible for women that have had Phil Collins tattoos. Their poor husbands have to deal with.

My only saving grace is that I actually collect things that nobody else is interested in.

I can't remember much about the early flights, except that it was ages before we got into First Class.

I just figured if I'm going to call myself a songwriter throughout my life, then writing for most genres of music is something I should at least attempt.

We all have the same problems in relationships.

I don't really belong to that world and I don't think anyone's going to miss me. I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely.

I am stopping so I can be a full time father to my two young sons on a daily basis.

I've spent the last year and a half going through a very public separation, hiding in hotel lobbies.

Beyond a certain point, the music isn't mine anymore. It's yours.

Things happen, but things happen and you follow... your heart is too dramatic, but you follow.

I grew up in the day when the Beatles sold 1 million singles in a week. And all you’ve got to do now is sell about 10,000 singles and you’re in the charts.

Genesis fans are a religious group!

Testimony is contingent on experience, that's why we're all free spirits

You can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been, it's all been a pack of lies.

And, you know, I never wanted to be a singer.

I joined Genesis when I was 19. I've earned the right to actually do nothing. I don't want to be a shadow of what I was, so I've kind of just quite willingly stood back.

In Genesis we saw ourselves as song-writers. After Peter Gabriel left I was the first to say: 'It's OK - we can just do instrumentals.'

I don't really listen to music.

Prog rock, with a little good taste, is ok. I tried to bring some of it into this century, I guess.

The stereotypical rock-star-trashing-a-hotel-room thing? Those days had passed by the time I was in a band big enough to do it.

I've been a long-distance father.

There's something perverse isn't there, if you're playing in front of 100,000 people and there's 2000 people down the front who don't like, you think: what is it that they don't like?

Many of the articles printed over the last few months have ended up painting a picture of me that is more than a little distorted.

Would you respect me if I didn't have this gun? Cause without it, I don't get it, and that's why I carry one.

You'll regret the day you ever messed with Philadelphia Collins and sons

Catering on planes, like on British Rail, is a standing joke, but I don't really have a problem with it. I don't quite know what people expect.

Everyones a hypercrit and if you don't agree you're a liar as well

It's always been easy with Mark, he's a rock fan and we speak the same language. He's a big Beatles fan too. We worked a lot via CLI calls, though only meeting up once every couple of months.

They're the only ones brave enough to give me these opportunities [on being offered a soundtrack!]

I just don't think of myself as a star. This is what I do for a living; I'm fortunate that I make ends meet.

I have some rhythms on my computers, that are actually called "trance", they go from 1-30 or 40. They're grooves that come on the synth. If I could somehow use them, I would.

To me, groups of musicians playing together, not fighting each other, but playing a groove together is one of the most exciting things to listen to.

And I would like to marry and have more children. I would like to try and do it right.

As a composer I approached the drums differently than a non-composing drummer. I embraced drum machines.

As soon as you start making a record, things start getting lined up: the promotion, possibly even a tour.

Of course you can't please everyone all the time. It's just something that I've got to get over, and I'm better at it now.

I never said I was at the Alamo. Someone else said I was at the Alamo. Now I'm a nutter. I don't think that's fair.

I suppose you can't take kids into consideration all the time, but I just wish there could be a bit of flexibility.

I'm not trying necessarily to become a movie star; that wouldn't be bad but that's not the aim. I'm just trying to do interesting things and go into areas where I've not been before.

To see a lot of the smaller labels disappear or get gobbled up by the bigger labels, that’s a shame. It was a bit of a shock at first to see the demise of the record stores.

I suppose Phil Collins offers something for everybody, and in hipdom that's not cool. But in the real world, there's no shame in that at all.

I very rarely listen to the in-flight stuff.

I'd love to work with Disney again.