When I was working on the lyrics, I thought of all the lullabies we learn as children: "Away in the Manger," William Blake's lullabies. I realized that the key to lullabies is simplicity.

I immersed myself in books and rock 'n' roll, the adolescent salvation.

What I say should always be prefaced with this: I'm not really politically articulate. I just try to be like Thomas Paine: what is common sense? So when I say these things to you, I am speaking from a humanist point of view. I just look around and see what's wrong.

I just like living in certain atmospheres. Or I just like people as they are.

You can't work on that scale without trust. I learned that from working with Robert Mapplethorpe.

Look at Obama - he is now [2015] trying to help us environmentally but he should have done it eight years ago. He's trying to salvage his legacy and trying to do something good but we needed for him to show leadership from day one.

Both of them were ahead of their time, but they didn't live long enough to see the time they were ahead of.