Syd Barrett: (1971 interview) I'm really totally together, I even think I should be.

Jerry Shirley: You'd get some sort of sense out of him, and then he'd just laugh at you. Lots of people tried lots of different things.

Syd Barrett: (on the importance of lyrics) Very important. I think it's good if a song has more than one meaning. Maybe that kind of song can reach far more people, that's nice. On the other hand, I like songs that are simple. I liked Arnold Layne because to me it was a very clear song.

Syd Barrett: (on whether he tried to create a mood through his music) Yes, very much. It would be terrific to do much more mood stuff. They're very pure, you know, the words...I feel I'm jabbering. I really think the whole thing is based on me being a guitarist and having done the last thing about two or three years ago in a group around England and Europe and The States, and then coming back and hardly having done anything, so I don't really know what to say. I feel, perhaps, I could be claimed as being redundant almost. I don't feel active, and that my public conscience is fully satisfied.

please, please, please lift the hand
I'm only a person with Eskimo chain
I tattooed my brain all the way...
Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?

Syd Barrett: (1971) (On unemployment) Well, of course, living in Cambridge I have to find something to do. I suppose I could've done a job. I haven't been doing any work. I'm not really used to doing quick jobs and then stopping, but I'm sure it would be possible. Perhaps it has something to do with what I felt could be better as regards music, as far as my job goes generally, because I did find I needed a job. I wanted to do a job. I never admitted it because I'm a person who doesn't admit it.

Peter Barnes: I mentioned the Syd Barrett International Appreciation Society to Syd once. He justsaid it was O.K., you know. He's not interested in any of it. It's ironic. I suppose - he's much bigger now as the silent cult-figure doing nothing than he was when he was functioning. Syd has always said that when he goes back into the studio again he will refuse to have a producer. He still talks about making a third album. I don't know - I think Dave is the only one who could pull it off. There seems to be a relationship there.

Syd Barrett: (asked if he still painted) Not much. The guy who lives next door to me paints, and he's doing it well, so I don't really feel the need. A lot of people want to make films and do photography and things, but I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing.

Roger Waters: Oh, (the media) definitely don't want to know the real Barrett story... there are no facts involved in the Barrett story so they can make up any story they like, and they do. There's a vague basis in fact: Syd was in the band and he did write the material on the first album, 80% of it, but that's all. It is only that one album, and that's what people don't realise. That first album, and one track on the second. That's all; nothing else.

David Gilmour: Oh, I don't think *anyone* can communicate with Syd. I did those albums because I liked the songs, not, as I suppose some might think, because I felt guilty taking his place in the Floyd. I was concerned that he wouldn't fall completely apart.

Gilmour: I don't know - maybe if he was left to his own devices, he might just get it together. But it is a tragedy - a great tragedy because the guy was an innovator. One of the three or four greats along with Dylan. Syd was one of the great rock and roll tragedies. He was one of the most talented people and could have given a fantastic amount. He really could write songs and if he had stayed right, could have beaten Ray Davies at his own game.I know though that something is wrong because Syd isn't happy, and that really is the criteria, isn't it? But then it's all part of being a 'legend in your own lifetime'.

Roger Waters: Because we're very successful we're very vulnerable to attack and Syd is the weapon that is used to attack us. It makes it all a bit spicy, and that's what sells the papers that the people write for. But its also very easy because none of its fact, it's all hearsay and none of them *know* anything, and they all just make it up. Somebody makes it up once and the others believe it.

Bryan Morrison: Have you ever met Syd? Well, he had psychiatric problems, and was actually in a sanitorium. He doesn't have any involvement with anything or anybody. He is a recluse - with about 25 guitars around him. I see him very rarely. I mean, I know where he is, but he doesn't want to be bothered; he just sits there on his own, watching television all day and getting fat. That's what he does. (Editor's note: Morrison states that Syd's mother committed Syd to a sanatorium , where he remained there for eight years)

Syd Barrett: (asked if he still read poetry) I've got Penguins lying around at home. Shakespeare and Chaucer, you know? But I don't really read a lot. Maybe I should

Roger Waters: (1992) I haven't seen Syd for 10 years...more than years probably. I don't know what went wrong with Syd because I am not an expert on schizophrenia. Syd was extraordinarily charming and attractive and alive and talented but whatever happened to him, happened to him. 

Nick Mason: I think Syd was a major talent as a songwriter and maybe could have been as a musician. He has not done anything for the last ten years. And consequently, people who don't entirely achieve all their potential become even more legendary.

Roger Water: (1975) I'm very sad about Syd, I wasn't for years. For years I suppose he was a threat because of all that bollocks written about him and us. Of course he was very important and the band would never have fucking started without him because he was writing all the material. It couldn't have happened without him but on the other hand it couldn't have gone on *with* him. He may or may not be important in rock'n'roll anthology terms but he's certainly not nearly as important as people say in terms of Pink Floyd. So I think I was threatened by him. 

Gilmour: I last saw him around Christmas in Harrod's. We just said 'hi', you know. I think actually of all the people you've spoken to, probably only Storm and I really know the whole story and can see it all in the right focus. I don't know what Syd thinks or *how* he thinks. Sure I'd be into going back into the studio with him, but I'm into projects like that anyway. Period. 

Roger Waters: (1987) I could never aspire to Syd''s crazed insights and perceptions. In fact for a long time I wouldn't have dreamt of claiming any insights whatsoever. I'll always credit Syd with the connection he made between his personal unconscious and the collective group unconscious. It's taken me 15 years to get anywhere near there. Even though he was clearly out of control when he making his two solo albums, some of the work is staggeringly evocative. It's the humanity of it all that's so impressive. It's about deeply felt values and beliefs. Maybe that's what 'Dark Side of the Moon' was aspiring to. A similar feeling.

Jenny Fabian: I knew the others but they were absolutely nothing compared to Syd. His words and music were the Pink Floyd and I've never been interested in them since. Nothing ever reached the heights of that first album, which was mad and mysterious....like him.

But now he's resigned to his fate
'Cause life's not unkind - he doesn't mind.

Yes, I should think so.

Barrett in his garden, in a little hut at the edge of the wood, 1982

After his mother's death, Barrett moved to the outskirts of Cambridge and no longer lives in his old house.

If you respect this man's achievements, his family have asked repeatedely that you please not go looking for him.

If you do go disturbing the man, you will doubtless be disappointed. The man once known as Syd Barrett is now a bald, stout painter who has nothing at all to do with the 60s pop star, does not want to be reminded of the past, and will have nothing to say.  Roger Barrett wants to be left in peace and quiet.......