Sometimes I get lost in watching a film. The sorrow, or the frustration, is when it doesn't happen for a long time.

Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.

Often the simplest song is the hardest to write.

Talking to god and coming back because that's what we have to do. That's your responsibility as a director, as an artist, as a performer. Your responsibility is back again to your people.

Sometimes [people] seem to think I came out of the womb, you know, cursing, with an electric guitar.

In any performance, you're on stage for two hours, and there's 40 seconds or maybe a whole five minutes where you feel like the whole universe is in place, and you've gone even beyond the universe that you know.

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