Chris Martin

Before our albums are released I feel like we still own it, that we have control over our music. But once it’s out there in the world it’s no longer ours.

Everyone asks me about being so worried or thinking about existence as if I’m the only person who can’t understand why a tree grows the way it does or why a person is in power when they’re not that great. These are questions everyone has.

I get more people approaching me about how good I was in ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ than being in Coldplay.

I never talk about my wife: we’re both in public professions but we try to keep our private life private.

You know, it’s possible for two humans to be in a relationship without there needing to be some public reason for that relationship.

I always dream about other musicians. And they’re never interested in hanging out with us. It’s like being at school and the bigger boys don’t want to play with you!

Wow. Losing 95 percent of your audience in just five years. That basically makes Obama the NBC of presidents.

Do your thing and don’t care if they don’t like it.

So, my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this. When faced with sexism, or ageism, or lookism, or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: “Is this person in between me and what I want to do?” If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way. Then, when you’re in charge, don’t hire the people who were jerky to you.

We are following other people’s opinions. We are controlled by the media. And today it all changes.

The thing is, we’re not extravagant people. It’s just unbelievable the amounts of money we make. But we don’t spend it. It’s too scary to spend it.

Any time that people think enough of you to put up something that’s everlasting is only going to make you feel good.

I really love cursing a lot. But as I get older, I realize it’s a little unseemly for women of a certain age.

A designer told me that my wife was a master of light and I was a master of time.

And I’m looking at him like, ‘Oh my God. This is Michael Jackson’. I fainted, blacked out – like seriously blacked out.

I don’t normally do shoots in bikinis – I’m just not that kind of girl. But for ‘Maxim’ I was like, ‘Bring it on!’ I wanted to wear the higher heels and the skimpier bathing suit. I figured I’d go for it!

[on the MTV movie awards] Ryan was whispering in my ear as we’re winning the award. He’s like, ‘You go that way, I’ll go this way, and we’ll meet in the middle. I was like, ‘What?!? You better not chicken out or I’ll kill you!’ It was fun.

Being good is about being an all-round contributor in the great world of music.

[on acting] Sometimes I think, ‘To hell with acting’ and then I realize I could be working at a shoe shop. Acting is much cooler.

When humor works, it works because it’s clarifying what people already feel. It has to come from someplace real. You don’t just decide to destroy a person by making up stuff, and no one at SNL is writing to go after someone.

The guys that don’t respect that history and tradition, I don’t think they’re going to be around all that long. And those guys who don’t know the history and tradition, I think it’s upon them to learn about it pretty quick if they want to be a success.