Quotes from Elton John

It was a reminder that you only get so long, that you never know what's around the corner. Maybe that gave me some real clarity about what was important to me about life. Why try and deny how you really feel, deep down, about something as fundamental as fatherhood?

I looked like a finalist in a competition to find Britain's least convincing flower child.

You get up in the morning after you've slept with someone, and the first person you and your latest conquest bump into is your mum, angrily waving a receipt under your nose and demanding: 'Why have you spent this much on a dress for Kiki Dee?' It's just weird. It really takes the shine off the atmosphere of post-coital bliss.

Then again, if I was going to break the habit of a lifetime and punch someone in the face, it might as well be John Reid; he could take it as payback for thumping me when we were a couple.

Everyone clearly needed a stiff drink in order to process what had just happened.

It's worth pointing out that Renate didn't just marry a gay drug addict. That would have been bad enough. But she married a gay drug addict whose life was about to go haywire in ways he hadn't previously thought possible.

when she was pregnant, so Nan was born in a workhouse. She never talked about it, but it seemed to have left her as someone nothing could faze,

Well, I was making a record, and I had to choose a name, because they said, you know, you can't make a record under the name of Reg Dwight, because it's never going to - you know, it's not attractive enough.

I grew up at my grandmother's house, and she had a beautiful garden. I used to hate mowing the lawn and weeding, which is what you do when you're a kid. I loathe gardening, but I love gardens, and I have two beautiful gardens.

I guess that's why they call it the blues, time on my hands could be time spent with you.

When people go to rehab and come out, they go through a difficult period, but I never had that.

The worst thing you can do to a child, and I've seen it happen so many times, is the silver spoon.