Lyrics are the only thing to do with music that haven't been made easier technically.

The dominant theory coming out of Hollywood is that peoples' attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and they need more stimulation.

I think the other thing that's important is getting to a place, which very, very rarely happens with improvising groups, where somebody can decide not to play for a while. You watch any group of musicians improvising together and they nearly all play nearly all the time. In fact I often say that the biggest difference between classical music and everything else is that classical musicians sometimes shut up because they're told to, because the score tells them to. Whereas any music that's sort of based on folk or jazz, everybody plays all the time.

I see TV as a picture medium rather than a narrative medium.

People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.

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

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.