I take sounds and change them into words.

Some people say Bowie is all surface style and second-hand ideas, but that sounds like a definition of pop to me.

In the 1960s, people were trying to get away from the pop song format. Tracks were getting longer, or much, much shorter.

I often say to people that producing is the best paid form of cowardice. When you produce things you almost always get credit, if it's a good record, but you hardly ever get the blame if it's not! You don't really take responsibility for your work.

Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don't fit in a very interesting way.

When you build a building, you finish a building. You don't finish a garden; you start it, and then it carries on with its life. So my analogy was really to say that we composers or some of us should think of ourselves as people who start processes rather than finish them. And there might be surprises.

I set up situations that involve abandoning control and finding out what happens.