There are many critics who have an idealised version of where my strengths lie.

My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.

You've got a chemistry class; I want a piece of your mind; You don't know what you started when you mixed it up with mine.

There are five things to write songs about: I'm leaving you. You're leaving me. I want you. You don't want me. I believe in something. Five subjects, and 12 notes. For all that, we musicians do pretty well.

Don't try to touch my heart, it's darker than you think. And don't try to read my mind, because it's full of disappearing ink.

And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians.

[Commercial radio] is owned by one or two corporations now, and they're not in the music business. They're in the advertising business.... So let's not kid ourselves. If you want to hear music, go buy a guitar.