I think we're going to have drug problems and end up living in a squat in south London. Richey (1992) On our first European tour I remember going to Frankfurt and seeing the needles at the station and being so shocked. We had never had anything to do with that. Nicky (1992) I must admit, in all my years in the industry, cocaine seems back with a vengeance. It hardly breeds reasoned behaviour, but it sometimes breeds good records... Nicky (1996)

I could never see the argument that Trainspotting glamorised heroin, 'cos I think it's incredibly seedy, but the very fact that handsome actors are making loads of money doing a brilliant film is obviously glamorous. Drugs, for me, I just find them incredibly boring and I think that people that take them are incredibly boring. Nicky (1996) Drugs are the biggest get-out clause in the world. Dope enhances your creativity? Bollocks! It destroys your brain cells. When we came to London it was 'hey, chill out, spliff up man'. But our calling card was 'Anxiety is freedom'. Nicky (1996)

On the Suede tour James was pissed all the time and was lying in bed until five every day. I had my moments. Sean (1996) I started drinking in my first term in university. It was something that I'd never allowed myself to do, but it was just a question of getting to sleep. It was so noisy, and I needed to get to sleep at a certain time. Drinking gave me that opportunity. Richey (1994) It's true that I drink at least half a bottle of vodka a day, but it's only on the same level as most people. Say if we were back home, working: everybody I know would come home from work, go down to the pub, drink five or six pints, forget about everything and go to bed. I don't think it's a big thing... Richey (1993) At least a third of my body must have been made up of alcohol during the run-up to the release of 'A Design For Life'. I just didn't feel confident. You'd go home to see your mum and dad and she'd go, 'James, I never thought you'd have a weight problem! Look at your dad'. And my dad's there, 55 years old, smokes 40 a day, drinks and he's completely fit and hard. My auntie comes in and goes 'Oooh, you fat little blob'. James (1996) I'm the sort of person who wakes up in the morning and needs to pour a bottle down my throat... I'm paranoid about not being able to sleep and if by about eight o' clock at night I haven't had a drink, I get massive panic attacks and I'll be awake all night, and that's my biggest nightmare. I know that until one in the afternoon I'm going to be shaky and have cold sweats. By six o' clock I feel good, but by eight it starts coming round again, the thought of not sleeping. And that's when I start drinking. Richey (1994)

My need is functional. By about midday I need a drink to stabilise me, but I've got to drive the group to rehearsal, so I can't have that drink. But on tour, I drink all day, just so I don't have to think about going onstage. Richey (1994) Typical rock bands drink Jack Daniels and get fucked up because they have this romantic, glamorous Jack Kerouac vision of the world. When I sit in my bedroom with a book and a bottle of vodka, I do it because I'm sad, not because I think it's cool. I do it because I want to forget what I'm thinking about. Richey (1992) I used to be really outgoing, but I'm more withdrawn now than I ever was. I can almost honestly say that I've seen Richey and James become confirmed alcoholics over the last 18 months. During that period there hasn't been a single day where Richey hasn't had at least half a bottle of vodka. Neither him nor James can go to sleep at night without drinking that much. It's depressing. If they went out boasting about it, it would be worse. Nicky (1993) At university, I never spent my money on beer like all the union crowd. I just used to go into town and play on the fruit machines. I got to be a bit of an expert at it. In fact I was completely addicted, and I ended up £3,000 in debt because of it. I've never drank or taken a single drug in my life, so I guess fruit machines took their place. Nicky (1994) The one constant in Richey's life which he enjoyed was drinking. The fact that it put him to sleep. He'd drink on his own - not a social thing. Nicky (1996) I'm trying not to drink. You can't play the kind of shows we do if you're permanently hungover. Sean (1996)

I was about 12, playing football and a bloke called Brian Summers said, 'I've found some great stuff under my brother's bed'. It was quite hardcore porn. We all had a look at it, about five of us, in silence for ten minutes, then I had to run out of the house quite quickly. I was ill. I was sick. Richey (1994) I was 12 and I used to mess around with a mate down the street in his garage, and his father kept loads of porn magazines in there. I was just really turned on by it. It awakens all your interest. It was my rites of passage sexually, definitely. James (1994) I've seen loads of porn films. When I was 16 we used to go to a friend's house every dinner time and we watched the same porn film every lunchtime solidly for a month. You got bored after a while, mostly because there was no way you could sneak upstairs to the toilet and just stay there for ten minutes because everyone would kill themselves laughing when you came back. James (1994) If you're on tour you might stop off at a service station and buy a porn magazine. It's usually chucked away before you even get back on the bus. It's banal entertainment. They're all identical. Films too. You've seen one porn film, there's no point watching another. The only interest is when somebody gets something like Animal Farm, chickens and ducks. Yeah, I've seen it. After five minutes it's boring because it's just the same thing with a different animal. Richey (1994) All bands go to sex shops. When you tour Germany and Holland, that's what you do. I've been in one in Britain and it was so limp-wristed that I just walked straight out. I'm too used to the hard stuff. James (1994) We got asked by For Women if we would appear naked, but I have no desire to expose my genitalia. Too small. Richey (1994) I've had herpes since I was 15. Nicky (1991) The thrill of pornography is coming, and I think that wastes away into wanting something better. It makes me more romantic. It's the classic male response: you get pornography, you get your kicks out of it, then suddenly you think, 'Oh, I'm not really into that, because I want a relationship'. Does that make me a better or a worse person? I don't know. James (1994)

That wonderbra advert might be funny, but it's still designed to titillate men. We'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't say that's a picture of a woman being subservient to a little sex token, a bra. Advertising men use female images as subservient to everything. And Penthouse and Playboy try to diffuse pornographic images by putting in features about cars, or lifestyles of the rich and famous. That's just backing up the advertising industry. It's fusing pornography and product. It's very tactful. It pisses me off. James (1994) I find it very sad that a girl in a swimming costume is all that's required to turn some men on. Sean (1994) I don't regard paying for sex as being that different to sleeping with a groupie. It's all done on the same functional level. Richey (1994) We like to threaten people sexually. Especially males. Nicky (1993) We all loved to play the fruit machines but Sean owed thousands of pounds. The problem got so bad our record company had to pay off all our debts for us, and they banned us from gambling ever again. Richey (1992) Porn has helped me through fallow periods. Everyone goes through a dodgy period when they can't pull anything. Porn just gives you quick relief. It just sends you to sleep really... men just want to see women with their legs open. James (1994) Sex is just an iota removed from having a wank. Richey (1991) I think people are becoming more machine like and that's the imagery I like. Also sex and death are closely linked. Sado-masochistic imagery, bleeding... I find it attractive. I find it... sexual. Richey (1994) I think sex between two people is crushingly dull. All the magazines here... I really can't find anything sexy in there. Men with non-erect dicks or man on top of woman, woman on top of man - it just bores the fuck out of me. Essentially porn is for 13-year-old kids. Richey (1994)