I'm actually an evangelical atheist, but there is something I recognise about religion: that it gives people a chance to surrender.

Cooking is a way of listening to the radio.

I'd love it if American kids were listening to Muslim music.

For instance, I'm always fascinated to see whether, given the kind of fairly known and established form called popular music, whether there is some magic combination that nobody has hit upon before.

If I tried to make a commercial album, it would be a complete flop. I have no idea what the world at large likes.

When I went back to England after a year away, the country seemed stuck, dozing in a fairy tale, stifled by the weight of tradition.

Basically, you're still sitting there using just the muscles of your hand, really. Of one hand, actually. It's another example of the transfer of literacy to making music because the assumption is that everything important is happening in your head; the muscles are there simply to serve the head. But that isn't how traditional players work at all; musicians know that their muscles have a lot of stuff going on as well. They're using their whole body to make music, in fact.