I fingerpick a lot because I can get more of a range of feeling from the guitar than I can when I bash away with a pick.

Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that theres a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.

I like to write about things that are extreme in some form. I like to write about something I feel I have to write about.

And I really wanted a driver's license. I was 43, had my learner's permit and had failed the test once already - but that was in Riverhead, on Long Island.

I think that if you have a strong narrative, if the idea of the song can be boiled down to the basics, it won't change that much.

How weird it was to drive streets I knew so well. What a different perspective.

So you eat, you sleep, and then this wonderful child comes out, but you don't feel like you have any control over that process, over her, over her character and who she is.