There's a whole kind of melancholy that you can only attain with reverb. That's an example of a technology introducing a whole new meaning.

There are so many clichés in the world, especially in music, that it's a never-ending creative font to just bring two of them together and let them interact.

If you want to write a love song, you need to not try to write it for a particular person in a particular situation. It needs to be vague, otherwise you're going to fall into trap after trap of trying to rhyme with somebody's name. Keep it vague.

I actually prefer to hear small groups of instruments. Orchestras seem to lack a texture for me, or variety of texture. There's only about ten things you can do with one note in a string section. But a lone violin is continuously changing textures.

Serious music isn't listened to in a casual setting. You don't want to listen to that in headphones on the subway.

Never try to do anything artistic when you're feeling something overwhelming. It's like driving a car: If you're experiencing road rage, pull over.

Okay, a truly great song is a song that makes its own aesthetic intentions clear and then lives up to them and exceeds them in an interesting way. Alright?