Certainly being proficient in an instrument does have its problems. Because the better you get, the more you just start sounding like an ordinary guitarist. There are certainly guitarists that transcend that and do really find their sound and all that sort of stuff.

I think I have always had a pretty strong creative impulse. And that has probably saved me from abandoning myself completely.

A gentleman never talks about his tailor.

I've always hated narrative songs. I hate those songs where, basically, it's an unfolding of a story.

The more settled I've become, the more problematic my characters have become. There was a period when I wrote sensitive and gentle songs and these came at a time when life was at its most destructive. I think you write about what you need, on some level.

It's always a pleasure on a personal note for me to come back to Australia.

Rock music is the province of the young, and it should be made by young people. I'm not running around in a pair of spandex tights trying to reclaim my youth.