I had a lot of trouble with engineers, because their whole background is learning from a functional point of view, and then learning how to perform that function.

I've had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I've often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

Cooking is a way of listening to the radio.

The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band

I still do mostly listen to CDs. I think that every format really is a different way of listening. If you take a different sort of psychological stance to it - like, I think the transition from vinyl to CD definitely marked a difference in the way people treated music. The vinyl commands a certain kind of reverence because it's a big object and quite fragile so you handle it rather carefully, and it's expensive so you pay attention to how it's looked after.

Most big concerts sound disgusting and awful and insultingly bad. It's like going to the cinema and been shown a scratchy film which is upsidedown and the bulb had gone on the projector. The quality of large-scale live music is so shocking.

I have lived in countries that were coming out of conflict: Ireland, South Africa, the Czech republic. People there are overflowing with energy.