For I desired, as Youth does, to be taken by the hand and hurled into the world.

If I have any regrets, I could say that I'm sorry I wasn't a better writer or a better singer...When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep...An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn't know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.

I don't think people should do biopics of living people. I'm totally opposed to that.

He found it was as easy to hurl beauty as anything else. (On Robert Mapplethorpe)

Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.

I think it's really great that people share their work [on Myspace] and no one is paying for it. I think that's a very healthy thing and it's not a corporate thing.

A lot of children don't have a developed aesthetic. I did. I made early choices in life, even about cloth; I liked flannel and not polyester.