Will you take me as I am? Strung out on another man...California, I'm comin' home.

My family could only afford to get me the box of eight Crayola crayons, but I craved the one with all 24 colours. I wanted magenta and turquoise and silver and gold.

I loved Debussy, Stravinsky, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, anything with romantic melodies, especially the nocturnes. Nietzsche was a hero, especially with Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He gets a bad rap; hes very misunderstood. Hes a maker of individuals, and he was a teacher of teachers.

What I do is unusual: chordal movements that have never been used before, changing keys and modalities mid-song.

Does the moon play only silver when it strums the galaxy?

I liked playing in small clubs. I really liked holding the attention of thirty or forty people. I never liked the roar of the big crowd.

During times like these, the wise are influential.