Joy comes from places you least expect it. Its usually the simple things, like watching my son play basketball or going through Central Park when the blossoms are blooming.

I was actually grateful for being arrested, for the judge that promised me that I would go to prison if I didn't stay clean, because I listened to him and something clicked. Those two years when we were making album "Ultra" and I had to go back and forth to court to prove to the judge that I'd stayed clean, it gave me this time to suddenly realize, "Oh, I can do this, I can crawl my way back, I can get better. And I do want to be here."

I have the urge to still be part of the world, the universe, of life. Through music I have the feeling that I come a little closer to that.

I still hold on to the idea that a record can really change the way I feel.

You have a tendency to just remember the bad times and bad moments. I think that often it's the way of life. Yet the rewards we got from it were fantastic and we played a lot of shows to sellout audiences in I don't know how many cities. I just think we didn't realise how insane it was until we were actually right in the middle of it and couldn't stop. We just couldn't stop.

The thing about Depeche songs is that they’re so descriptive. For me, they tell some kind of story about a character who’s trying to redeem himself or to find something to believe in-some kind of faith or hope.

I go to a very visual place when I'm singing. It's very cinematic and I get this feeling of space. I love when music does that.