I always find it flattering when somebody recognizes me.

Well, whether it's on film or on TV, you don't want to throw too many curves at your audio and video guys.

I think that I recall the nostalgic '50s: the start of early television and rock-and-roll, and I think everything seemed to get very generic. Not much has changed.

About a year ago, out of the blue, I just wrote a bunch of songs.

Well, I took a sabbatical. I walked away from shooting movies because I couldn't handle the travel. I'm a single parent. I had young kids, and I found that keeping in touch with them from hotel rooms and airports wasn't working for me. So I stopped.

On the last couple of movies I made - big-budget Hollywood movies - I really missed being able to create my own material.

And I discovered after a couple years that I really didn't miss making movies.