I don't like those songs where you have to listen to a story to get into them. I don't want to have to pay attention to music in that way, I just want it to hit me in the heart and do what music's supposed to do.

L.A. is full of screenwriters. I don't know why. On many levels, it's such a thankless occupation.

The singing tells everybody what to do musically.

The love song must be born into the realm of the irrational, absurd, the distracted, the melancholic, the obsessive, the insane for the love song is the noise of love itself and love is, of course, a form of madness.

No wonder sorrow doesn’t smile much. No wonder sadness is so sad.

I want to write songs that are so sad, the kind of sad where you take someone's little finger and break it in three places.

I get criticized for a lot of what I write about, but as far as I'm concerned I'm actually standing up and having a look at what goes on in the minds of men, and I have the authority to talk about it because I'm a man.