I don't understand why Europeans and South Americans can take more sophistication. Why is it that Americans need to hear their happiness major and their tragedy minor, and as jazzy as they can handle is a seventh chord? Are they not experiencing complex emotions?

In terms of fiction, I'd rather go out and have a good time than read a book about someone having a good or bad time.

I'm a very analytical person, a somewhat introspective person; that's the nature of the work I do.

You've got to shake your fists at lightning now, you've got to roar like forest fire You've got to spread your light like blazes all across the sky They're going to aim the hoses on you, show 'em you won't expire Not till you burn up every passion, not even when you die Come on now, you've got to try, if you're feeling contempt, well then you tell it If you're tired of the silent night, Jesus, well then you yell it Condemned to wires and hammers, strike every chord that you feel That broken trees and elephant ivories conceal

Edith Piaf knocked my socks off when I was 8, but I didn't know what she was singing about.

The times you impress me the most are the times when you don't try.

How does a person create a song? A lot of it is being open to encounter and to be in touch with the miraculous.