I missed out on my teenage years. I led a sheltered life. I was practicing scales instead of going out there and playing football.

Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.

It would be a stronger world, a stronger, loving world, to die in.

I like it here in New York. I like the idea of having to keep eyes in the back of your head all the time.

I'm writing a movie about Mozart going to New York in the '60s. I've been reading so many novels.

I am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll.

I never use the word, it's loaded. What love means to me is need.