"I'm sad about my personal life, but I feel very blessed and very lucky that I have the opportunity to do what I do in my professional life. It would be horrible if I was just thinking about getting a divorce and had nothing to do." – Madonna, on welcoming her work as a distraction from her marital break-up to Guy Ritchie.

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"It's our responsibility as musicians to keep pushing each other. We will be the new Beatles, the new (Jimi) Hendrix. I want to be Elvis." – Kanye West, calling on his colleagues to up their game in a speech at the American Music Awards.

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"It's going to be my stepping stone from Chris Brown to superstar." – Chris Brown, on his upcoming CD Graffiti.

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"We had a beautiful ceremony here . . . officiated by a minister and photographed by the hotel photographer. We've never been happier. And, like other elopements that happen outside the country, we'll take care of the legal details when we get home." – Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the reality-tV couple whose relationship has been chronicled by MTV's The Hills, acknowledging that their wedding ceremony near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico – featured in a photo spread in Us Weekly magazine – was symbolic, and not legally binding.

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"For all of his successes, people don't realise that he's a great fan of music. They assume that he's this flamboyant guy who has hit records. They don't know that it's grounded in a great love and tremendous knowledge about music." – Elvis Costello, on Elton John.

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"I don't feel different. I can still remember asking my boss for Friday off because we were playing at a bar. It's the same. It's just the bar is bigger." – Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers, on how success hasn't changed him since the band broke out in 2004 with the multiplatinum album Hot Fuss.