People are quite shocked when you remind them that Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra never wrote a song that they recorded in their lives, as far as I know.

Being big and famous doesn't get you more freedom, it gets you less.

I only choose musicians who I think will emerge, can emerge, with their own character, while still going along with the tune in question.

In theory, I'd like to work in a group. But the group I'd like to work in, all the musicians in them are long since dead.

There's no field of music which doesn't have good ideas.

I would encourage people to realize that you don't have to panic if you're not part of a mainstream, or if you find yourself outside the flow. If it doesn't suit you, don't go along with it. Just sit it out and get your stuff done. Don't just sit moaning or getting drunk—I spent some years doing that. But if you can just come up with something of your own, however minor it is, that's going to be easier to live with when you're at the end of your life.

I don't know how many thoughts we have a second, but it's quite an amazing number, and just to pin down the appropriate sequence of those, all you really need is a pencil and a piece of paper.