In the hysterical technocracy of modern music, sorrow is sent to the back of the class where it sits, pissing its pants in mortal terror.

But if you're gonna dine with them cannibals Sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten . . .

If you got a trumpet, get on your feet, brother, and blow it!

Some are exploring the world through the subconscious. I've done that on occasions for various reasons, whether it be illness or self abuse, or whatever. Once things start to look grotesque I don't write them or sing them. I couldn't write them - making nightmares into living daylight...The minute it gets dark I shoot back, retreat.

I think there is a certain perversity in my music in that I continue, you know, to eat at the same ball of vomit year after year.

The idea of songwriting is a transformative thing, and what I do with songwriting is take situations that are quite ordinary and transform them in some way. Apart from things like the murder ballads, the songs I write, at their core, are quite ordinary human concerns, but the process of writing about them transforms them into something else.

To my undying shame, I do read reviews. I don't read them all, but I like to get some kind of idea how things are going.