I have a definite talent for convincing people to try something new. I am a good salesman. When I'm on form, I can sell anything.

All the best lyrics are written in ten minutes.

There is a sort of convergence starting to happen between the computer and musical instruments, but it's still quite a long way off.

A studio is an absolute labyrinth of possibilities - this is why records take so long to make because there are millions of permutations of things you can do. The most useful thing you can do is to get rid of some of those options before you start

Good teachers realise that the students are the antenna; they are sensing things that the teachers don't yet sense.

I have these headphones, which pretty much exclude everything else so that you can really completely control the sound that you're hearing. I don't use them very much, I have to say. I very rarely listen on headphones.

Frequently, I go straight into the studio and see what's around. I might hire a couple of instruments that I've never used - maybe a particular type of electronic organ or an echo unit. Then I just dabble with sounds until something starts to happen that suggests a texture. The texture suggests some kind of mood, and the mood suggests some kind of lyric. That's like working in reverse, often quite the other way around, from sound to song. Although often they stop before they get to the song stage.