There is a root arrogance in any writer; a hugely arrogant assumption that anyone is going to listen to them.

I have learned to interface - what I think would be the contemporary term - with various different lexicons, and people speak very different languages. I've learned to speak in a lot of tongues, and I can live with the bellicose language of some fervent, fire-breathing Christians, sure.

I think carrying moral baggage is very dangerous for an artist. If you have a duty, it's to be true and not cover up the cracks.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

Religion can be the enemy of God. It's often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.

It's so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio.

The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off - we do not have to stand for this.