I don't like to make fluffy little songs, but now I want to make some light songs.

When I came to California, it was the mecca of the world. Every young person on the planet wanted to be here.

We are stardust, we are golden and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

My individual, psychological descent coincided, ironically, with my ascent into the public eye.

At the point where I'm trying to force something and it's not happening, and I'm getting frustrated with, say, writing a poem, I can go and pick up the brushes and start painting. At the point where the painting seems to not be going anywhere, I go and pick up the guitar.

I wanted to paint in a folk-artist-y way. My heroes were Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, and Rembrandt. I think Picasso is about as a modern as I got. But I incorporated things that they rejected as well as movements that happened later.

In some ways, my gift for music and writing was born out of tragedy, really, and loss.