I have my own record company. I have to answer to God, basically. I'm not young, so I want to make the best possible work I can before I exit.

I don't throw my body down on the stage at all anymore because I'm sure I'd snap like a twig.

The music takes you. It has to be alive. It's like you hammer something, and the way it happens to bleed leads you into new directions.

I'm pretty confident that people are going to come along for the ride. If they don't, tough.

I'm more interested in pulling out strands of joy from both myself and the audience. I'm not saying the music or songs are "light," just that when they're performed with the correct commitment it's a source of real pleasure, for me anyway.

You make your work and you can't ask for approval when you're doing it. Otherwise, it's going to be untruthful in some way.

I never could read Foucault. I find philosophy tedious. All of my knowledge comes from reading novels and some history. I read Being and Nothingness and realized that I remembered absolutely nothing when I finished it. I used to go to the library every day and read every day for eight hours. I’d dropped out of high school and had to teach myself. I read Sartre without any background. I just forced myself and I learned nothing.