Gilmour: "It's a magical thing, the guitar. It allows you to be the whole band in one, to play rhythm and melody, sing over the top. And as an instrument for solos, you can bend notes, draw emotional content out of tiny movements, vibratos and tonal things which even a piano can't do."

Gilmour: "I don't like to get too specific about lyrics. It places limitations on them, and spoils the listeners' interpretation."

Gilmour: "I think a guitar solo is how my emotion is most freely released, because verbal articulation isn't my strongest communication strength. My wife thinks that I should do interviews by listening to the questions and playing the answer on guitar."

Gilmour: "I mean, I have moments of huge frustration because of my inability to express myself linguistically as clearly as I would like to."

Gilmour: "I don't have a very disciplined approach to practicing or anything, but I do tend to have a guitar around most of the time, which I strum on most of the day."

Gilmour: "I've never had any religion. I'd prefer it if I did, really. Even as a boy I just couldn't make myself believe."

Gilmour: "I was never particularly gregarious. I was quite shy, closed in. It's a classic isn't it, your psychiatrist will tell you, that's how I release it, through music."

Gilmour: "I love singing. I have spent as much of my life trying to improve my singing as I have practising guitar."

Gilmour: "I think I could walk into any music shop anywhere and with a guitar off the rack, a couple of basic pedals and an amp I could sound just like me. There's no devices, customized or otherwise, that give me my sound."

Gilmour: "I don't want to be a full-time member of Pink Floyd all my life."

Gilmour: "If people would like to come to my concerts I'd love them to come. And if they like the music that I make, I love that too. But I do not make music for other people. I make it to please myself."

Gilmour: "Everything in moderation - that's what I live by."

Gilmour: "Usually, in the studio, on this sort of thing... you just go out and have a play over it, and see what comes, and it's usually - mostly - the first take that's the best one, and you find yourself repeating yourself thereafter."

Gilmour: "I am a lover of all sorts of different music. I love blues and every piece of music that I have listened to has become an influence."

Gilmour: "I can't help other people's frustrations. I don't owe people anything. If people would like to come to my concerts, I'd love them to come. And if they like the music that I make, I love that, too. But I do not make music for other people. I make it to please myself."