My songs are like a three-legged dog - you have to get to know them to have any love for them.

When you can no longer differentiate between the insanity spewed onto the blank page, and the madness evident in the all-but shattered mirror...that's when you know you're doing it right.

I think we have to be active in teaching our children, and teaching each other. We have to be active about kindness and about peace. I've always fantasized that it would be great if there was a Department of Peace. We have a military, but what if there was a department devoted entirely and truthfully to finding peaceful resolutions?

We give the podium to a lot of people who shouldn't have the podium. The message that's delivered the loudest and in the most entertaining way is the one that we're going to put on because that's what we want. We want ratings more than we want to deliver information. That's just where the culture's gotten.

Being a white South African, I enjoyed the better things that that country gave to a small percentage of its population.

I'm a bit of a caveman - I don't go out into the digital space very often. I lie facedown on the grass and count how many bugs I can find.

But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world, and there's incredible acts of kindness and bravery and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.