There are a lot of composers who were fantastic, but I challenge them to write a record that you could play five times a day for two months on the radio, songs that people will want to dance to on a Saturday night.

I consider myself a sit-down comedian really, as much as anything else. I love comedy. Life is a cosmic joke.

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

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.

Potentially, America is really the greatest, but it's not yet, I don't think. It's too much like an old-fashioned empire, waving the stick and dropping too many bombs on too many people.

Because I'm associated with an avant-garde sensibility, people think I'm looking down on popular culture, but I don't want to be part of a new elitism.

I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest.