I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically.

I don't think you can escape the environment we live in now.

It's great to know that our old stuff still sounds good to our fans, just as it's wonderful to think that we've turned a few people on to jazz over the years.

I'm starting to get older, and began to think about mortality a little more. My mother died in 2003 and that was a big shock. When your parents start to die off, that's going to be a revelation. So for me, this album - although it might sound quite cheery - is really talking about death.

I think of Steely Dan as being of its time, and it may be inseparable from its time.

We don't think of ourselves as being perfectionists, really. To us it's more about desperately trying to have it sound more or less OK.

I had a dream that Britney Spears rubbed her breasts in my face and Jennifer Lopez gave me head while Salma Hayek sucked my toes and the Olsen twins videotaped everything. I would have kept dreaming it, too, if I hadn't set off the smoke detector.