“‘Rattle That Lock’ came out of the work I’d done for the last book I wrote which was the novel called ‘The Kindness’ because the main character in the novel is a student at Milton. I knew that I wanted to write a song about the need to protest and I suddenly remembered Book II of Paradise Lost and Satan’s heroic journey to go and challenge God. I thought that would work really well. Within that is everything I want to say.”Polly Samson (727)

“It’s not exactly a call to arms but it’s encouraging people to stand up for themselves and shake it about a bit.”David Gilmour (727)

“It was a beautiful piece of music and instantly suggestive of something to do with the sea and I sat on the beach with David and asked him to try to put into words what he thought it was about. He stared off into the distance and then he looked at me and said, “Well, I think it’s about mortality.” What had just been happening, he’d been trying to find other keyboard players [Rick Wright had just died – Ed] and he’d come back and say, “It’s just not the same.” And I think he realized after Rick died just what it was he’d lost. So that then, mixed with this idea of the sea (and Rick spent most of his life on a boat sailing the Atlantic), became a song about David missing Rick.”Polly Samson (727)

“A song about Rick Wright by myself and Polly.”David Gilmour (1275)

“‘Faces Of Stone’ was prompted by a memory of a day walking in Ladbroke Gardens with my mother when she was suffering with dementia. As we were walking through the trees, under the trees, she was saying, “Isn’t it lovely.” She would see pictures that were there hanging in the trees. That was a moment that sparked it off and I had a line that went, “Faces of stone that watched from the dark, As the wind swirled around and you took my arm in the park.” So it’s basically about my mother’s decline and the ending of one life and beginning of another ‘cos Romany was born 9 months before my mother died. So there was a period when they were alive together. She came to our house and held Romany in her arms as a tiny baby and I have a picture of that. So the moment in the park which is a mental picture and the picture of her holding Romany in her arms sparked a little thing that became the lyric.”David Gilmour (727)

“Um, you know, that is my life. Down the years, along with everyone else, I have despised songs about happiness. But, to me, this works. There’s emotional depth within an essential feeling of contentment.”David Gilmour (740)

“It’s been carnage the last 10 years for me. My sister died. My mother died a couple of years ago. An awful lot of friends and family have… popped their clogs. It’s affected me and Polly deeply. One of the songs, ‘The Blue’, with Polly’s lyrics, is a sort of dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Only it’s not dust, it’s the sea, it’s merging with the sea. We’ll all end up there one day, some of us much quicker than others, and it’s as real and valid a possible conclusion as… I don’t want to go there really.”David Gilmour (740)