We've got to temper anything we say with that. On the other hand, you've got to be serious about what you do. And you've got to understand the price you pay for frivolity or just for greed - it's a very high price, especially if you're involved in this sacred material, which is about the human heart and human desire and human tragedy.

The psychologists are valiantly trying to provide us with answers, the religious people are trying to provide us with answers. I think it properly falls on the cultural workers to investigate this predicament with a little less concern for the marketplace and a little more concern for their higher calling.

His vision was just outstanding. If you think of him in the same way as Pele then you would come close.

I've never thought of myself as a religious person.

One is distracted by this notion that there is such an thing as inspiration, that it comes fast and easy. And some people are graced by that style. I'm not. So I have to work as hard as any stiff to come up with my payload

I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it.

It's hard to be serious about so many things. [Look at the whole emphasis] on the charts, if you're a songwriter.