I read with some amusement my reputation as a ladies' man. My friends are amused by that, too, because they know my life.

Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity.

I hope we [with Patrick Leonard] can come up with something orchestral with some spoken material. And I also, God willing, hope that perhaps another record of songs also might emerge, but one never knows.

Just to get serious about this thing, you know. One has to be compassionate. It's true that people are up against things, economically and emotionally.

Something I wrote quite a few years ago was, "The voices in my head, they don't care what I do, they just want to argue the matter through and through." It is a common mistake, to think you're going to go into some kind of spiritual practice and you're going to be relieved of the human burdens, from human crosses like thought, jealousy, despair - in fact, if anything, these feelings are amplified.

I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.

Take one step to the side and it's all absurd.