Writers have always liked my stuff, pretty much. That's what I wanted - I think my goal wasn't to get rich and famous, necessarily, though I cared about that. I always thought, "Oh, this could be a hit," or "that will sell records." But the first thing I wanted was that people who knew a lot about music, or had taste-making qualities, they would like my stuff. Writers, people like that.

To get nominated by the Republican Party you've got to be pretty reactionary, really.

It takes a whole lot of medicine for me to pretend I am somebody else.

I like Public Enemy a great deal.

More of my songs are intended to be funny than almost anyone else. Sometimes maybe it cheers me up a bit. I've got a distance from it. Sometimes what I'm writing is more important to me than the rest of my life. It's more important to me that I'm writing well than anything else.

Crank up the Beach Boys, Baby.

There's a million white people better qualified than a black man to be president of America.