I want to be ripped apart by music.

Music is my mother and my father; it is my work and my rest...my blood...my compass...my love.

Words are beautiful but restricted. They're very masculine, with a compact frame. But voice is over the dark, the place where there's nothing to hang on: it comes from a part of yourself that simply knows, expresses itself, and is.

Music should be like making love. Sometimes you want it soft and tender, another time you want it hard and aggressive.

Grace is what matters. In anything. Especially life, especially growth, tragedy, pain, love, death. About people, that's what matters. That's a quality I admire very greatly. It keeps you from reaching for the gun too quickly; it keeps you from destroying things too foolishly; it sort of keeps you alive and keeps you open for more understanding.

I prefer the band situation. I prefer the relationship. Music is meant to be that way. It's meant to be interdependent.

The people who raised me musically are my mother, who is a classically trained pianist, and my stepfather.