"As far as the horror genre, I think The Exorcist is the scariest movie of all time. It’s like head and shoulders above… there’s nothing more terrifying, or deeply sinister than that. When I saw The Exorcist, at that time when I was a kid, I may have slept with the light on. I can’t remember the exact time [I saw it], but I remember being literally knocked back. You have the pure theological question about, you know, “What is the role of evil and what is the nature of evil and what is its function?” And I think in The Exorcist the point is, the reason it’s here is to try and make us give up hope, and find the courage to not give up hope. Evil wants to so demoralize you that you abandon all hope; it’s only human beings’ capacity to love and to fight back. But that’s the role of evil: To challenge, and to make you choose. And growing up as a Catholic, too, I was immersed in the theology and doctrine of the church, so that movie was a serious, serious f-cking movie."

"The rawness is what perked me up when I heard this first - and I've never forgotten that. You know, I've gotten a lot of her albums since, but that first one... There's an American singer called Nancy Wilson and the tone of their voices is very similar. When they first played it, I was driving back down to London from the north of England - it came on the radio and I thought, 'Thank God, Nancy Wilson has gone back to church.' You know what I mean, Nancy Wilson has got more soul, because the tones of their voices are very similar. But then they said 'this new singer, Aretha Franklin...' so I went out and bought the record in London. Meeting her for the first time [Franklin appeared on This Is Tom Jones], Aretha was very quiet - unbelievably quiet. I mean you'd go 'Hello' and she'd say 'Hello.' 'How are you?' 'Fine thank you.' 'Great!' And that's it. And when we were doing the rehearsal, and she'd open her mouth to sing, the volume that came from this woman - how can a girl who's so shy and quiet - all of a sudden BOOM - burst?"