That is who Barack Obama is - a person of admirable character - and that is who he has remained for me over these last four years. I have not agreed with his every decision but never once have I seen him break his cool lose his composure or abandon his insightful perspective - even during the most serious and/or absurd national disasters.

It is an interesting fact that during my tour I was never allowed access to computers radios or anything else that I might damage through curiosity or perhaps something more sinister.

I wrote somewhere during the Cold War that I sometimes wish the Iron Curtain were much taller than it is so that you could see whether the development of science with no communication was parallel on the two sides. In this case it certainly wasn't.

However even during the preparations for action we laid our plans in such a manner that should there be progress through diplomatic negotiation we would be well prepared to cancel operations at the latest moment that communication technology would have permitted.

During the past few decades modern technology with radio TV air travel and satellites has woven a network of communication which puts each part of the world in to almost instant contact with all the other parts.

People naturally change a lot during their 20s so my songs reflect that progression.

The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.

Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can't find the work they studied for or any work at all. So here's the question: Without a change in leadership why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?

I change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person and when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else.

In high school during marathon phone conversations cheap pizza dinners and long suburban car rides I began to fall for boys because of who they actually were or at least who I thought they might become.

After wrestling with myself for six months I began medical treatment. During that time I started a band with some friends of mine called Jack's Car but that didn't last.

In real life one of my friends was killed in a car accident during our sophomore year.

The fact is that a car used by Gerry Adams and myself during the course of the Mitchell review was bugged by elements within British military intelligence.

It wasn't a secret that I was gay. I'd come out to my parents during my junior year of high school on the day that I also wrecked the family car.

I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car - we didn't have any cars during the war. So that to and from school was itself a training.

A lot of people think Formula One isn't a sport because everyone drives a car when they go to work in the morning. But we're pulling up to six G on a corner or during breaking which is almost like being a fighter pilot. So we have to do a lot of work on our neck muscles.

I was turning 20 during my first record. Those decade birthdays always kind of cause me it seems to reflect look back and then look forward. I just was closing this period of my life where I was living in a car and scrambling my whole life to then signing a six-record deal with Atlantic.

You can hype a questionable product for a little while but you'll never build an enduring business.

The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty democracy and justice. It is fitting that the House act to protect it as we approach our nation's birthday and as our men and women in uniform rally behind it in Iraq's battlefields.

When I am traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal or during the night when I cannot sleep it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.

Ideas are elusive slippery things. Best to keep a pad of paper and a pencil at your bedside so you can stab them during the night before they get away.

Music as many people have said is the universal language. Of course points are made which make you think about things but ultimately it makes you feel. And that's why people remember more songs that have meant something during their life than films. They start to define periods in your life and that's kind of the beauty of it.

During the 80s and 90s we all became consumed with ourselves. In the 21st century we've come back to simpler times. People are struggling economically and this has forced them to scale back the material aspects of their lives and realise the beauty of finding the simple joy in being with the people we love.

Hardboiled crime fiction came of age in 'Black Mask' magazine during the Twenties and Thirties. Writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler learnt their craft and developed a distinct literary style and attitude toward the modern world.