I'm probably much more influenced by film-makers and painters than I am by other songwriters or poets.

I think I'm a maker of songs, and songs are like films or a picture: You put them over there, and they have nothing to do with you.

But huge photographs of dead bodies are slightly different. I couldn't find much humor there.

I decide immediately if I like a person and if I do, then I'm myself, and if I don't, then I give nothing.

When I write - I always write on my own - I demo those songs on a four-track.

I've so much left to explore, it's enormously exciting to me. It's a passion. I just try and get better at what I do, and I study it very hard, like it is my life degree.

I knew what I didn't want to do- that's always my starting point. The starting point is always that I don't want to repeat myself. Or I try my best not to, with varying degrees of success.