Somebody said to me this morning 'To what do you attribute your longevity?' I don't know. I mean I couldn't have planned my life out better. By all accounts I should be dead! The abuse I put my body through: the drugs the alcohol the lifestyle I've lived the last 30 years!

If we became students of Malcolm X we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they're killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We'd not have the drugs we have now or the alcoholism.

My second marriage had a lot to do with alcohol.

Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic the second is intimate the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.

Alcohol may be man's worst enemy but the bible says love your enemy.

Anyway no drug not even alcohol causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles we shouldn't test people for drugs we should test them for stupidity ignorance greed and love of power.

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

But you can count the dead bodies from alcohol tobacco and legal pharmaceuticals by the millions.

Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem. We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. Over 500 000 people are in our jails who are nonviolent drug users.

Two great European narcotics alcohol and Christianity.

Alcohol doesn't console it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn't comfort man. On the contrary it encourages him in his folly it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny.

Young people can get very discouraged and get hooked on drugs or on alcohol because of problems they perceive as insurmountable. It is important that they realize a mistake need not ruin their future but they must also know that not everything in life is a bed of roses.

It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of modern medical thought.

Part of treatment for drugs and alcohol is you abstain from these but with eating disorders you can't abstain from food so the treatment is longer than drugs and alcohol.

Food during my early years was a very difficult issue for me. I grew up in an addictive family. My mother had serious problems with alcohol and prescription drugs. I was an overweight kid. I can remember back in those days there weren't the strategies that there are today to deal with those issues.

Mankind: A quality of life upgrade is available to each and every one of you. It should give you a quality of life upgrade which means no drugs no alcohol no fast food - unless of course it's a mallard.

There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure which most songwriters are.

It wasn't being an alcoholic - it was going wild. It happened when I got famous. It was like having my teens in my early thirties: blotting out your life not having to think about anything.

When you live in an alcoholic family or an abusive family you tiptoe you don't want to step on any mines.

My mother is a special education teacher but also an artist and my father an advertising executive. They are about as wacky as you can get without being alcoholics.

As women slowly gain power their values and priorities are reshaping the agenda. A multitude of studies show that when women control the family funds they generally spend more on health nutrition and education - and less on alcohol and cigarettes.

I think people tend to see the bigger point which is maybe not fitting in and feeling like you didn't have the childhood that you expected you would have or that you felt lonely or struggled with drugs and alcohol or just that you were able to achieve your dreams.

I am fussy about my diet and straining my voice. I know sounds a bit over the top. But I'm not as bad as I used to be. These days I don't drink alcohol for five days before a show - very dehydrating for the vocal cords and all that acid reflux. I used to ban it for a fortnight. Nightmare.