About today's Corrie: "I don't understand how all those people could live in a small street and all those people could go into a pub every single night and none of them have cars. I mean, can you name one street on the planet that you can go down now which isn't chock a block with cars?" Do you need a label to put out an album? "I'm old fashioned. I want to be institutionalised. I want to be behind the bars. I don't want to do anything, and I don't want to join a cottage industry and sell things from the back of a van." (2011) "For the most part products are disposable, but just for that extra one song that changes your direction in life, the importance of popular music just cannot be stressed enough. Music is the most important thing in the world. "But because it's restrained by government or whatever it's passively sold as something that's not really that important. But it is and everybody knows it is, so we might as well all admit it!" "I think there was quite a trend towards those ideals, but now people are starting to realise you don't actually get anywhere when you have that attitude. "There's been lots of really wonderful people on independent labels who have failed and disappeared and that's a shame. I don't really understand what being an independent group means. I don't feel part of this little thing, whatever it is. "Nothing in the past is important really. I was alive. That's all. If people really like The Smiths - and we do have our disciples! - I don't think they're interested in whether I had a job once or Johnny owned a caravan! "As long as we've been in existence we've used the flowers and it's interesting that in recent months quite a few groups have also begun to do exactly what I do. Like Echo and the Bunnymen and Big Country! "The songs are personal - they're there to be discovered. The words are basic because I don't want anyone to miss what I'm saying. Lyrics that are intellectual or obscure are no use whatsoever. About middle-age: "That's a long time off and something I don't think about. But age shouldn't affect you. It's just like the size of your shoes - they don't determine how you live your life! You're either marvellous or you're boring, regardless of your age. And I'm sure you know what we are!" – Morrissey, 1983 How does the new album differ from its predecessors? Strangeways perfects every lyrical and musical notion The Smiths have ever had. It isn't dramatically, obsessively different in any way and I'm quite glad it isn't because I've been happy with the structure we've had until now. It's far and away the best record we've ever made. What do you see as the high points? There are so many I wouldn't know where to start. Anyway - isn't it your job to work those out? If Strangeways is the perfect Smiths album, where do the band go from here? I expect when the dust has settled after Strangeways there will have to be some degree of rethinking because we can't go on forever in our present form. Inevitably certain aspects of the band would become tarnished so a slight readjustment will have to be made - I think now is absolutely the right time to do it. When something becomes too easy and it's all laid out for you, one is robbed of the joy of achievement. When there's no need to fight any more, it'll be time to pull up the shutters on The Smiths. I don't think EMI have much to worry about - we're not planning anything drastic or supernatural - we'll still basically be people. It has crossed my mind to crystallise into a butterfly now and then but I don't think it's quite the right time at the moment. Is it true that every record company in the land was queueing up to sign The Smiths? And why EMI? As far as I know every record company wanted to TALK to us, but not really to offer us anything spectacular. EMI gave us a very concrete offer and at such times, when you just want to get the whole thing over with, one tends to lose a certain amount of rationale and the whole experience becomes very draining and emotional. EMI made us the best offer, so we signed. All this talk of f1 million signing-on fees is complete fabrication - it's a nice idea - in fact it's a VERY nice idea - but all complete fiction. I really can't tolerate the trite attitude that's surrounded The Smiths signing to EMI - the concept that it's like getting into bed with Hitler is pathetic. The indie scene in England is very negative - groups within the indie movement come and go and you never even hear about them. They're never on TV, never on daytime radio - half the time I've no idea why the independent movement bothers to exist. They seem to regard remaining isolated from the pop mainstream as being somehow morally virtuous - it's just so self-destructive. No one even knows about these ethically wonderful songs, made by these people with tremendous moral strength and willpower, so what's the point? I truly believe that to make any impact at all you have to get into the big, bad world of major record companies, ruffle a lot of feathers and kick a lot of bottoms. The record industry regards The Smiths as a private concern - we exist in our own world, selling records to "our" fans and no-one else. Frankly, we've always suspected the records are simply abandoned as soon as they start dropping down the charts. As a writer and lyricist I think I improve hourly - a lot of people say the first surge of Smiths' records were the best but I really, really disagree. I make sure I write something every day and my flat is strewn with the debris of lyrics, finished and unfinished. I get ideas from almost everywhere but especially supermarket queues - I have a talent for eavesdropping and it's amazing what you learn while waiting to pay for your fruit juice. I go to the supermarket every day of my life and one time I was choosing some butter when this zoom lens appeared from nowhere and on the end of it was a Japanese tourist behaving like David Bailey. I nearly died on the spot - it's as near as I've ever come to chucking it all in and becoming a hermit. Another time I was shopping for some, shall we say, personal items - no I won't tell you which ones - when I was seized upon by two fans. You've got to be so careful - you never know who you might bump into in Boots. I often wonder if we shouldn't explain ourselves more, especially as an astonishing number of people completely misunderstand The Smiths "humour". Take "Bigmouth" - I would call it a parody if THAT sounded less like self-celebration, which it definitely wasn't. It was just a really funny song - whenever I heard it on the radio it made me laugh and the same was true of at least half The Queen Is Dead. The Smiths do tease people - making them laugh, then making them cry - operating at opposite ends of the emotional scale. What we're ultimately hoping to do is make them laugh and cry at the same time. I wore NHS spectacles, which I still do so it wasn't a mantle or a badge - and suddenly I saw all these people who didn't need to wear spectacles doing so in imitation of The Smiths and bumping into an awful lot of walls. Other bands have tours sponsored by Levi's - maybe we should find a large firm of opticians. It was much the same with the earplugs - I never needed a hearing aid but recently I caught a serious ear infection and literally went deaf for about four weeks. Naturally I took this as retribution for wearing a hearing aid. It was hellish - four weeks of "pardon" jokes at my expense. Someone coined it as disability chic, through which The Smiths reached out to certain parts of the public who never felt they fit the perfect mould of "pop fan". There are lots of people who want to be a member of the audience, want to get involved in the music and the lifestyle but don't feel interested in the constant chase for fashion perfection that most bands inflict on their audience. Fashion has gone through periods of being completely redundant - mainly the fault of fashion magazines illustrating the things you can buy if you're dramatically, overbearingly rich, but are of no use at all to ordinary people living in humble places. I find with, for example, Comme Des Garcons clothes, their style of being quite basic but hellishly expensive is very interesting. "Fame, fame, fatal fame, it can play hideous tricks on the brain" - what tricks has it played on yours? I still find it difficult when people come up to me in public places because I tend to get approached in lots of different ways and learning how to cope with them is a nightmare.