With songs I almost see the images, see the action, and then all I have to do is describe it. It's almost like watching a scene from a film, and that's what I go about trying to catch in a song.

I think of myself as a songwriter, a weaver of story and imagination in a way that a novelist might write a book.

And all of these writers offer me a greater understanding of what it is to be alive, and that is such an incredible thing art can do for other people. It made me want to try and get close to this strange, mysterious thing that people can do with words.

I long ago learned that you can't expect people to interpret the songs in the way they had meant for you, as the writer.

First off, I think nudity is taken differently in America, though they did make a fuss in England, too.

Love for money is my sin, any man calls, I'll let him in.

It's so much in me to want to keep experimenting all the time. It's just inherent.