I was reading The Bible a lot through my 20s, mostly the Old Testament, just because I was knocked out by the language and the stories. I felt that the God being talked about there, who was this insane, vindictive patriarch - it was kind of thrilling, and titillated something in me at the time.

The singing tells everybody what to do musically.

The society of whores stuck needles in an image of me.

To sustain hatred is a very difficult thing to do, year after year. It's exhausting.

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

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.

My muse is my wife. It's not some vague thing that flutters around the astrosphere or wherever it is. Sometimes as a songwriter you need something to hang a song on, to give it some kind of presence and form. For me, Susie is that.