There are people who are originals and the stuff they make really is new. It isn't based on anything else. But I've decided I'm not that-I was never that. My abilities are to synthesize a wide range of references and ideas into something that feels relatively unified and coherent.

"A meteor hits planet Earth" - that's a story idea but that doesn't give me any indication of what the character is.

Truth and facts have to trump partisanship. There has to be something that's true regardless of what your angle is on it.

I have no shame in making music that maybe, if you listen to it long enough, you'll realize you've heard this or that part of it before. I'm still very excited by an amazingly written song, so that's really the thing that I work on when I make records with people.

Nobody's talking about movies the way they're talking about their favorite TV shows.

I stopped reading reviews about my own movies. I read stuff about other people's movies.

I'm still very affected and moved by their music - maybe in a way that's different from someone who grew up around it.