I think the US and the UK are gradually growing closer together in a lot of ways. They're inextricably linked.

It would be a horrible business, a horrible sort of culture if you didn't have the candy pop as well as the real hard-hitting stuff. And I love some pop music.

I would say Tony Blair is very much a lapdog. I'm terribly scared that when he finally goes - and we can only hope it's soon - that he will be remembered for all these terrible things that he's done. Which is kind of a scary thing for a Labor Prime Minister.

Music is politics - it always has been and it always will be.

I would always consider myself to be political with a small "p," although it makes me mad when people say politics should be kept out of music.

One of the joys of writing music is making your own mark. Study other stuff, immerse yourself in music and then tell your own truth.

Bob Dylan had been a big sort of presence in my life but I'd never quite registered what he was trying to tell me. He was always this kind of figure, a sort of bear-like figure in the corner of the room. You know, every time I imagined what Bob Dylan looked like, he looked a bit like Steve Earl used to look - with the beard.