The only time that I've adopted characterization again since that point, for my own albums, has been an album called "Outside" that I did with Brian Eno.

I think a lot of that album ["Tonight" ] is still very good . . . the songs, but I think I was indifferent to the arrangements.

The character thing really is sort of, for me, personally, rather ancient history.

Radio in England is nonexistent. It's very bad English use of a media system, typically English use.

I was studying Tibetan Buddhism when I was quite young, again influenced by Kerouac.

Lou Reed is the most important definitive writer in modern rock. Not because of the stuff that he does, but the direction that he will take it.

You write down a paragraph or two describing several different subjects creating a kind of story ingredients-list, I suppose, and then cut the sentences into four or five-word sections; mix em up and reconnect them. You can get some pretty interesting idea combinations like this. You can use them as is or, if you have a craven need to not lose control, bounce off these ideas and write whole new sections.