Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive.

I just started going to shows. I don't know how submerged I am: I feel guilty that I don't get out more, but I really like being inside the house.

What's scary is the unknown, the stuff you can't put your finger on.

Take dance music: I like enough of it and its history to be able to say a word or two about this or that record, but I'm nobody's authority.

As important as politics are to me, the life and the spirit of people's emotions are much more important. People live real lives where they love and grieve and feel pain and joy and that is a whole separate sphere. All that political stuff, I believe in it strongly, but not as strongly as I believe that at some point you or someone is going to need a song to sit with and comfort them in a hard time.

Life is hard, you're tired, and there's disease. The strategy that works for children is to be delighted by the things that delight you.

In the present political situation, it's an interesting phenomenon to look at: what is the appeal of an autocratic leader? Why do people want somebody who yells at them? For most of us, that's so hard to understand. Who wants that? I think there are a lot of people for whom that fulfills some kind of need.