But the guitar, when you think about it, is the most versatile, really. I mean you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go.

I did play a lot of fingerstyle when I first started playing. I could never really find the right combination of flatpick or fingerpick, so playing fingerstyle is really the easiest way - though it's quite strenuous on the fingertips.

I don't have half the nerves there that I have anywhere else.

Every time you pick up your guitar to play, play as if it's the last time.

For me there is something primitively soothing about this music, and it went straight to my nervous system, making me feel ten feet tall.

Leave bands, go back to obscurity if I choose to, without a great sense of loss of security because it's all been based on the fact that I did it on my own or was doing, enjoying doing it on my own in the first place.

I sought my father in the world of the black musician, because it contained wisdom, experience, sadness and loneliness. I was not ever interested in the music of boys. From my youngest years, I was interested in the music of men.