Your skin upon my skin, in the beating of our hearts, may the living let us in, before the dead tear us apart.

Every good writer or filmmaker has something eating at them, right? That they can't quite get off their back . And so your job is to make your audience care about your obsessions.

In the early years, I found a voice that was my voice and also partly my father's voice. But isn't that what you always do? Why do kids at 5 years old go into the closet and put their daddy's shoes on? Hey, my kids do it.

I don't know many artists who are not crazy.

What you were singing about was believable and convincing, that's the key to a great singer.

It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.

[The Catholic religion] was something I carried with me, never forgot, brought into my music. And it's been in my music ever since.