A song has to take on character, shape, body and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle. The rock stars have assimilated all kinds of philosophies, styles, histories, writings, and they throw out what they have gleaned from that.

I have a very strong paternal streak. I'm a born father...I get such enjoyment out of being with children. Now they are enjoyable little things. They really are. I like their kind of humor. You can stuff all your punk bands, give me three children instead.

Some people are marching together and some on their own. Others are running, the smaller ones crawl. But some sit in silence.

I never really got the book together for the thing, so I had all the songs and the characters. But by the time we'd gotten it on the road and I'd been doing it for 18 months, oh God, I couldn't wait to move on to something else.

I've never responded well to entrenched negative thinking.

I think it's rather a waste of time endlessly singing the same songs every night for a year, and it's just not what I want to do.

In fact, everything I do is about the conceptualizing and realization of a piece of work, whether it's the recording or the performance side.