I never wrote poetry, just prose. I don't really consider songwriting a form of poetry either. The words are important, of course, but they're dependent on the music.

I like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound.

It wouldn't interest me to try to sound like Cop or something. It would be silly and soul-crushing.

As far as playing playing festivals and everything, I feel like that's what I was born to do. I'm an entertainer, hopefully in the best sense.

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.

It's good that people come to the shows because there's nothing fashionable about Swans. Never has been, really. We've never been part of a scene. So the people that come are really there for the music. Fortunately, there's a lot of young people and a burgeoning female contingent, which is good as well.

I really wanted to get to the animal core of rock music and eliminate anything that wasn't necessary.