People often can't separate, or can't understand, that to be funny is to be serious; it's a way of pulling people in and not scaring them off. I think a lot of the funny stuff, underneath it, there's a deep anxiety going on.

Music is storming, driving, relentless, devotional, slinky, subtle, heartbreakingly-beautiful sounds that, lyrically, switch from the cynical to the sanguine, the defeated to the defiant, dealing in love, war, beauty, children, romance, rejection, Pethedine, poetry, panties, God, Auden, Johnny Cash, cold potatoes, too-much-money, not enough money, writer’s block, flowers, animals and more flowers. But maybe I’m projecting here.

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

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.

I've always had an obligation to creation, above all.

Look, when I look back, from 20 onwards, I was actually having a pretty good time, I have to say.

Writing screenplays makes me a better musician because it clears my head. After writing a movie, I go running back to music as fast as I can.