There are plenty of people who are, I think, completely racist who love hip-hop.

It didn't even occur to me that I'm the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

There's still a feeling that uncensored emotions make a good song. They don't. Pure emotion is just somebody screaming at you, or crying. It doesn't communicate anything. It has to be mediated with some skill and craft, in order to communicate it to a second, a third, or a fourth person. That doesn't make it any less real. And it doesn't make it any less true. But it does mean that, yeah, it's the combination that makes it work.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

I've noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it's various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.

It's a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn't support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, 'Well, yeah,' but you start to think, 'Why not, though?' What makes one more valuable than another?

I wave to the double-decker buses from my bike, but the passengers never wave back. Why? Am I not an attraction?