I try to write every day. I don't beat myself up about word counts, or how many hours are ticking by on the clock before I'm allowed to go and do something else. I just try to keep a hand in and work every single day, even if there are other demands or I'm on a book tour or have the flu or something, because then I keep my unconscious engaged with the book. Then I'm always a little bit writing, no matter what else I'm doing.

Nerds are just deep, and neurotic, fans. Needy fans. We're all nerds, on one subject or another.

When I write lyrics, I really do go into an automatic folk appropriation mode... I see the vernacular register of 20th century song as being a bunch of forms to adapt and reconfigure.

Anyone could see it all coming and no one could possibly stop it and that was the beautiful thing. Friday night was open wide and writ in stone

Nature, or at least birds and women, abhorred the invisible man.

But the day I can't shrug off a twinge of self-pity, is the day I'm washed up for keeps.

Life is fundamentally up for grabs