Love is blind. My politics has been, too. I think you can fall in love with ideas, and you can fall in love with people. It's a very subjective experience. And I'm loyal to that experience.

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.

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

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

Even if you're specific about the character of the song, it's more exciting to place them, juxtapose them in such a way as to make an adventure out of the sequence of the songs.

This constant pressure from record companies to come up with a hit single or something like that, I find completely tiresome.

When I'm singing I try not be a singer with a capital S. I just try to get it out so I feel comfortable with it.