There is a core of loneliness. It's partly existential. Secondly, I was raised a loner. My parents were not there. My father was asked to leave because he couldn't metabolize ethanol. Actually, my mother ran away with us when I was 2 months old and my brother was 5. Real dramatic stuff: down the fire escape, through backyards. So, I sort of raised myself. I was alone a lot and I invented myself - I lived through the radio and through my imagination.

If this is the best God can do, I'm not impressed.

In adolescence you have to separate yourself and establish your identity. So, being very independent anyway, I took charge.

The ritual was very important to me: cleaning the pot, rolling the pot.

Bullshit is truly the American soundtrack.

If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

The rebellious mood of the country during those [60th] years allowed me to plug right back into my old hatreds. I could scream and holler, as I did on the albums, against religion, government, big business - all those assholes and their values. That hatred was very real.