Music can make the cerebral accessible, the subconscious hummable. It communicates our shared needs and desires as sentient beings better than any other medium.

I'm getting offers for movie stuff. But it shows how facile the movie industry is. I mean, they don't know I can act. I guess they like my record and think I have a nice complexion? I don't know. How many people work and wait tables to get that break? I really don't feel entitled. Everything's so corrupt, you know? Especially the tastemakers. I trust the American public much more than the tastemakers.

I never know how to get off the phone, so I'm terribly admiring of people who can.

Public radio is the last oasis of free and independent music. For satellite radio channels, you have to subscribe; commercial stations are as corporate as basic cable.

In the hierarchy of instruments, if you're a harpist, you're considered someone with a brain much more than if you're a singer. Even though singers, particularly singers who can play piano... If you go to the office of career development, you can get a gig much easier. Still, musicians tend to look down on you. I think they've got some nerve, because if they could sing, they would do it, but most of them can't.

In New York City, when they develop something, they never use the old buildings. It's so wasteful. Why not use what's there?

I will say that art may well be the only thing that lasts, so I guess it's worth trying.