I'd harbored hopes that the intelligence that once inhabited novels or films would ingest rock. I was, perhaps, wrong.

I'm not leaving New York. And neither is anyone else. We're here. We are quintessential Americans - we're not only American, but New York-American.

I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels.

Not too many songwriters, when they write songs go for broke. When someone does who's really good, it's astonishing. There's a reason a three-minute song can devastate you, or make you get up and dance, stop what you're doing and go, 'What is that?' It just hits you. And it's a very potent thing you're playing around with.

It's the music that kept us all intact, kept us from going crazy.

I want the principles of a timeless muse, I want to eradicate my negative views.

Research, research, research. It means everything.