For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.

I am always writing; if you want to survive in this business, you need to keep working, keep creating and never stop the output.

When it came to using elements of your personal life in your work, my mother was the master, or the mistress. There were three or four songs she wrote about my father - songs about failed love.

I've always gravitated towards opera, and the Royal Opera House is quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth.

My mother's songs are really turning out to be masterpieces. I have inherited this incredible legacy and am so fortunate to bathe in her sensibilities. It is tinged with tragedy. I'd much rather she was here in person, but there is still a positive force to come out of her death and that is having the gift of music that she gave.

I don’t really have a relationship with the guitar; it’s like my slutty lover, whereas I’m married to the piano

I'll always be a boulevardier. I have an extreme reverence and romantic longing for all that is decrepit and fatalistic.