I'm more critical of my songwriting than anybody, but I've worked really hard in the last five to 10 years to improve. I didn't take it all that seriously when I started. It was a little bit of a stigma to being a songwriter or a folkie back then. I did a lot of send-ups of sensitive singer-songwriter stuff when I was starting out, which limited my development as a songwriter in a way. I wasn't really fully given license to explore that until the mid-90s. I'm still working on it; I'm a little bit of a late bloomer.

I just go in the studio and write on the spot and see what comes out.

There's a perception that if an artist produces another artist, they're going to imprint on them. But I'm the opposite.

I'm always looking for older equipment and ways of recording, but you can't escape the fact that it's all going to be digitized and reduced.

I would love to do an electronic record. There's just so much to see and do and try. And life goes by.

Whatever you do has to be commercial and it can't be too distracting - it has to be background music, basically.

I never had any expectations of winning a Grammy. It wasn't something I was set on, that I was hoping and praying and starving for.