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I think if I'm controversial it's not because I set out to be. It's because I've never felt comfortable being part of someone else's mainstream community.

I have never written out of a desire to be controversial.

I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet.

I'm not one of your knockabout, knuckle-scarred, Internet-controversy-courting book critics. Occasionally I stumble into controversy accidentally, but not because I enjoy it. It's probably just because I'm a weird person.

I've never intended to be controversial, but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.

I don't like controversy.

I have never in my career embarked on a journey towards controversy. I have never deliberately set a flame.

I sometimes feel that I have been born to attract controversy.