Part of the shabbiness of our culture, if indeed it is shabby, is that it doesn't seem to prepare people. With all the songs about love and all the movies and all the books, there doesn't seem to be any way that we can prepare the human heart for this experience.

The Maestro says it's Mozart but it sounds like bubble gum when you're waiting for the miracle to come.

I felt like if any two people had any kind of sexual affinity for each other they had to sleep with each other immediately, otherwise it was a terrible betrayal and waste...Fortunately, I'm relieved of those obsessions now. It's really wonderful. It's really wonderful not feeling you have to sleep with everybody.

Garages, barns and attics are always older than the buildings to which they are attached.

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.

Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.

We're in a world where there's famine and hunger and people are dodging bullets and having their nails pulled out in dungeons so it's very hard for me to place any high value on the work that I do to write a song. Yeah, I work hard but compared to what?