My heroes are people like Picasso and Miro and people who at last really reach something in their old age, which they absolutely couldn't ever have done in their youth.

I can't imagine my life without the extraordinary bebop jazz revolution in New York in late '40s and '50s.

I know people who grow old and bitter. I want to keep making a fresh start. I don't want them to defeat me. That would be suicidal.

I'm not a soldier for anything, either. I'm only a singer and I don't think it makes a difference what we sing.

Im not, by nature, a collaborator. My biggest influences were people like painters and poets. These are solitary workers.

I'm not full of malice, but I do dislike Neil Diamond a lot, and I'm sorry that I've done a Neil Diamond song.

When I lost the use of my hi-hat and bass drum legs, I became basically a singer. I was a drummer who did a bit of singing, and then I became a singer who did a bit of percussion.