When I think of 'influence', I think of 'influenza', like somebody's picked up a germ.

Practice? I never practice. I just write songs and take solos.

When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone.

When I think of 'influence', I think of 'influenza', like somebody's picked up a germ.

People ask me this a lot, what a song's about.... I do think analyzing a song can be interesting, although it doesn't necessarily get to the point. It's a whole other side activity. I do like making a thing into pictures. If I get an abstract idea and all the words in it don't represent tangible things, I might try to take the idea and make it into a picture, create a little scene there, an image.

The first time I met Patti Smith was in a laundromat. We knew some of the same people, including Richard Hell.

I can't remember ever being really bored. I find life very interesting, actually. I think some other musicians are always looking for something to give them an idea, but I find I have to reject 90 percent of my ideas because they don't live up to some self-imposed standard. That's also why I don't make a record once a year. I throw so many things out, and I have to have something to say.