“We have the word of Mrs Linda Tripp that Monica told her that Buddy would sit, dewy-eyed and with tongue hanging out – and not a bit of wonder – as the presidential trousers concertinaed down to flop around the ankles, and Monica sucked and Bill blew.” – Eamonn McCann mourns the passing of Bill Clinton’s dog Buddy

“AC/DC are the epitome of dumb genius. They’ve rewritten the same song a hundred times and it still sounds brilliant.” – Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives

“We said to him as a joke, why don’t you come and sing with us. And then we were kind of mortified when he turned up.” – Ash’s Tim Wheeler on sharing a stage with Darius of Popstars

“I’m not going to turn around to somebody and say, ‘Sorry, you’re into my music for the wrong reasons’. Hell, I don’t mind if your other favourite artist’s Enya.” – Andrew WK

“Basically I wanted to beat The Beatles and I felt very competitive about that.” – Beach Boy Brian Wilson recalls the making of Pet Sounds

“When we came to not writing together, I think it was difficult for both of us. But, y’know, he still did ‘Imagine’. He still did one of his best things ever.” – Paul McCartney on John Lennon

“That I’m a bitch. It’s because I’m tall and really very smart.” – Julia Roberts on the greatest misconception about her

“That’s the problem when you go and live in places like New York – there’s so many temptations and distractions. It’s not that I’m easily led or anything – I’m the one leading the charge.” – David Holmes

“The Edge is so hot.” – Sarah McLachlan names her ultimate rock’n’ roll sex symbol

“I’ll give you a blast of ‘Delilah’ after six pints. Clear a pub!” – former Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan admits he’s not a singer

“Anyone like me, and there were others, who criticised him have to say he’s proved himself in the only place that matters, on the pitch. The league table doesn’t tell lies. He has achieved more with his resources than Jack Charlton did and that’s a hell of an achievement in an Irish context.” – Eamon Dunphy pays tribute to Mick McCarthy (in March)

“Sometimes I think it must be the only film in Ireland to feature a sex scene.” – Flora Montgomery tires of answering questions about nudity in When Brendan Met Trudy

“I think there’s an extraordinary emotional tension in good prose and it can’t be fabricated. It has always fascinated me that if you change a single word in a sentence, that all the other words have to be changed as well.” – John McGahern

“When I fell like I can't trust the people around me, I get rid of them. If someone fucks me over, they're gone. One strike, you're out.” – Alicia Keys (pictured)

“Saint Patrick was a bit of an early version of David Gray in the way he came over from Wales when he couldn’t make it anywhere else and the Irish canonised him.” – Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly

“We were in the same hotel as them. Zoe’s interviewed most of them – one member of the team even asked her out – but when we said hello they totally blanked us.” – Fatboy Slim and Zoe Ball have an unhappy encounter with Manchester United players at The Clarence in Dublin

“It was brilliant but never return to a lit firework.” – Ian Brown asked if The Stone Roses might ever reform

“Concerned Parents Against Drugs, yeah? It’s a bit dumb really, them cancelling the show. Those guys in Dublin might actually have learnt something useful if they’d come along, instead of making threats.” – former drug runner Allen Long responds to the cancellation of his scheduled show in Vicar St with Howard Marks

“The moment we start thinking we are the best band on the block is the moment we fuck up.” – The Strokes’ Fab Moretti

“So Solid Crew are talking about a lot of things but saying zero.” – Tjinder Singh of Cornershop

“It was amazing. She was dancing on the balcony all night. We impressed Better Midler. Wow!” – The White Stripes’ Jack on their superstar fan

“People are being beaten up, insulted and abused because of the colour of their skin. The highest number of people from another country living here are white Americans and they don’t suffer any of these difficulties.” – Luka Bloom on racism in Ireland

“Nine times out of ten, the men I’m supposed to be seeing are either friends or people photographers have paired me up with at parties.” – Natalie Imbruglia

“I’m not a great singer but I sing from a great place and that place is U2.” – Bono, picking up the Best male Singer gong, at the Hot Press Irish Music Awards

“Well, when it says ‘When Quinn the eskimo gets here’ I figured he wasn’t delivering snow.” – then Labour leader Ruairi Quinn on his political signature tune, Bob Dylan’s ‘The Mighty Quinn’

“I personally find music that glorifies misogyny and homophobia very disturbing. It’s one thing if you’re talking to adults but his fan base is very young. I don’t think it’s healthy to have millions of pre-teens thinking that sort of prejudice is cool or funny.” – Moby on Eminem

“Like Ronan Keating before them, Ireland will do well to get out of the group.” – Sam Snort’s World Cup prediction

“Most people can’t fathom how it can’t be patched up. I mean, people can shake hands and work together in Northern Ireland despite thousands of deaths and murders. So why not this small pampered elite?” – The Whole Hog on Roy Keane v Mick McCarthy

“I think Mick McCarthy’s a bit of a knob and all.” – Liam Gallagher

“People drink a lot in Ireland because it rains a lot and that rinses away the sick. It’s a great eco-system.” – Emo Phillips

“He’s so sad that he’s even got a Polaroid of these dogs that he’s banged.” – Ozzy Osbourne, not impressed by Gene Simmon’s claim that the Kiss frontman has had sex with 400,000 women

“Watching a dismal, tired, worn-out, old drug addict collapse slowly into… millions and millions of dollars per episode is not interesting viewing.” – John Lydon on The Osbournes

“Writing is great too, 'cos, one of the things that's a drag about being an actor is somebody has to give y ou a job. And it can make you crazy sitting around waiting for a job. And if I'm writing, I don't worry about it.” – Ethan Hawke

“I don’t want to be a party pooper but while Hot Press has every right to celebrate its 25th birthday, the victories you’ve helped achieve will mean nothing if we don’t combat the burgeoning racism here. How fucking dare we, of all people, be intolerant of others coming to our country?” – Bob Geldof, in the Hot Press 25th birthday issue

“I think it is just so hypocritical when parents tell their kids not to smoke cannabis when they have a fag in one hand and a pint of beer in the other.” – self-confessed inhaler Mo Mowlam

“I’ve never voted ’cause they’re all cunts. Every single one of them including Sinn Fein, Tony Blair, George Bush, Gerry Adams, that Ian Paisley geezer… they’re all fucking arseholes.”
– Lemmy

“Sleep deprivation is like drugs – there have been weeks recently which feel like one long acid comedown but the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.” – Bobby Gillespie on parenthood

“I don’t think I could live with the pay cut. Or moving to a smaller house.” – Bono, asked if he’d consider running for President

“I not only owed the original but over a 14-year period with penalties and interest at like $5,000 a day, the whole bill went to $32 million dollars.” – Willie Nelson on how he amassed the tax bill from hell

“I’ve already decided what I’m going to do if I lose my hair – join Slipknot. Underneath those masks they’ve all got combovers. They were on the same bill as us last year at Reading. What a fucking load of shite!” – Kelly Jones of Stereophonics

“You should make music because you love it and don’t expect the world to pay you for the honour.” – Steve Albini

“Do you know I didn’t even get any fan mail? In fact, put my address and phone number on the end of this, will you? I need the confidence.” – Simon Delaney, who plays Michael in Bachelors Walk

“Matthew Bannister let BBC Radio 1 go right down the pan – first with Chris Evans being lavatorial and then with all that stupid dance.” –former pirate radio king, Chris Cary

“People at that gig were amazed. All my mates were going, ‘Who is that guy? He is beautiful’. All the girls are falling in love with him.” – Beth Orton on David Kitt

“They are the most tribal people on the planet. They hate one another and they’re stuck on that little fucking island… They have this veneer of civilisation but it’s really only there to keep them all from killing each other.” – movie director and former Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam pays tribute to the English

“There are some things in this world that you just can’t do anything about, so you may as well fall in love with life while you can.” – Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips

“If I worried for a second about people seeing my arse, the film wasn’t going to work.” – Jimi Mistry, star of The Guru

“After Big Brother we were told that we might be the focus of attention and I had a security guard on my front door but the only person who called was a six-year-old little boy who lived next door.” – Anna Nolan

“For all his crookedness and shite-talking, he never does himself any good. In that way, he’s different from a lot of real politicians.” – Pat Shortt on his political alter ego Maurice Hickey

“I think it’s terrible the way some newspapers feel they can say anything they like about people who’ve been to prison.” – David Elio Malocco

“That was a huge betrayal. That was like Vivieene Westwood accepting an MBE after punk. Traitor. But I don’t think Elton did it out of malice… when you live in the cultural bubble that Elton John does, you forget how hard it is to be gay in, say, Thurles.” – Boy George on Elton John duetting with Eminem

“Really, the thing I want is to last through the winter so I don’t miss the new James Bond movie.” – Warren Zevon’s reaction to being diagnosed with terminal cancer

“It’s actually on the radio here in America. I hear it every day on my way to the fuckin’ studio: ‘Next up, the new Nirvana song’. I’m like, ‘What the fuck?!! Time machine – get me out of here!’.” – Dave Grohl on the fabled ‘You Know You’re Right’

“They’ve got a great term for washed up rockers in the States – ‘Heritage Bands’. It’s pure Spinal Tap.” – Cormac Battle of Wilt

“‘Ride On’ gets lots of bizarre airings at weddings. Don’t ask me why.” – Jimmy MacCarthy

“You’re getting your ass beat by somebody and it’s a fucking cool feeling.” – Korn’s Jonathan Davis on his taste for S&M

“I think your guys are more into grand larceny. People here are probably into a bit of petty larceny.” – PUP leader David Ervine compares corruption North and South

“Fucking straight down.” – Damien Duff (pictured) when asked whether in the upcoming world cup he'd hurdle an outstretched leg in the penalty box, or go down.

“The favourite dinner time story at my house was my dad recounting how his grandma got her four brothers' heads sent back to her in baskets by the Turks.” – Milla Jovovich on growing up in a Serbian household

“I want people to think of me a little bit like a grenade with the pin out. I think journalists should always be dangerous, difficult, unpredictable.” – BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson

“Man she’s hardcore about food. I thought I’d eaten some pretty weird stuff – sheep’s testicles, fetal eggs, beating cobra hearts – but she’s gone way beyond that.” – chef Anthony Bourdain salutes Nigella Lawson

“Our gigs are still a little messy and ramshackle. We haven’t turned into professionals just yet.” – Danny from Supergrass

“There’s a movement going on now called screamo – sort of hardcore emo. It’s a cool movement.” – Dave Buckner of Papa Roach

“I like to have a tennis chair like the type used by line judges. This allows me to survey my dominion from high above the fray.” – Josh Ritter selects his favourite studio device

“Roy walked out on the World Cup twice in three days. You must remember that. We’re not talking about a happy bunny here who suddenly said the wrong things for a few seconds.” – Niall Quinn recalls that summer of discontent

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ – I honestly think sometimes that he’s worse than Thatcher, and I can’t bear to think what that evil bitch did to Scotland.” – Magdalene Sisters writer and director Peter Mullan on Tony Blair

“It’s like I’m standing in the middle of the motorway and there’s a huge truck coming towards me and I’m caught in the headlights and I can’t seem to get out of the way.” – David Gray looks forward to getting back out on the road

“I’m not discussing sexual positions with you Mr Clark.” – Edwina Currie replying to Stuart Clark’s observation that John Major struck him as a bit of a missionary position man

“I am David Evans to customs officials, policemen and sales assistants.” – The Edge

“Do everything. And do everyone.” – Dolly Parton’s motto in life