growing up, living in a commune

I wouldn’t call it a hippy commune. I think that’s to exaggerate. It was just a place where eight people rented rooms in the same flat. I was the only child there, and they all had long hair, which doesn’t make it into a commune. But they all ate healthy food and listened to Jimi Hendrix. The pleasures of that generation, I guess. I could also stay up as long as I wanted.

As the only child there, were you spoilt rotten ?

I think you could put it that way. If I thought I had something to say, people would listen to me. And people would play me records that they were listening to, and explain them to me. It was very good for a kid to be brought up in that sort of atmosphere.

Well, and to be taken seriously

Yeah, for sure. And it was also like : "let’s go down the park and play with the kites for many hours with the grown-ups."

The Times, 2 august 2001