I would like to think that the singer is the butterfly, and the drummer was just the little grub in the ground, working to become a caterpillar

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 don't do live things.

The United States is a country where everybody can start again.

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.

I find writing songs hard, because it does not come naturally to me. I never set out to be a songwriter or a singer.

The most effective instruments do have a vocal quality.