I had wanted a tape recorder since I was tiny. I thought it was a magic thing. I never got one until just before I went to art school.

Everything good proceeds from enthusiasm.

When I was young, an eccentric uncle decided to teach me how to lie. Not, he explained, because he wanted me to lie, but because he thought I should know how it's done so I would recognise when I was being lied to.

The reason I don't tour is that I don't know how to front a band. What would I do? I can't really play anything well enough to deal with that situation.

If something is good, you must torture it mercilessly until it is either dead or great.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, 'Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!'

I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.