I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

I have no doubt in mind that I justify the space I take up in the world.

I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

I'm used to writing stories with a beginning a middle and an end in four minutes.

Maybe I'm not as big a star as Bruce Springsteen because I'm not as good. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I still have an audience of a certain size. I think it's one of the things I'm luckiest.

My son was diagnosed with autism. He's OK, he makes eye contact, but he doesn't talk. He needs eight hours a day of very intensive school, and you wouldn't even believe me if I told you how much it costs.

You make decisions, and that's what separates art from some other pop music. It doesn't mean that you can't make an embarrassing amount of money, for a borderline Marxist, doing something that you love, but it does mean that this huge pool of money that was out there when I started making records in the '80s is gone.