It's hard to play with a bagpipe player. It's like an exotic bird. I love the sound, it's like strangling a goose.

I’ve always believed that the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them are there.

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.

I've been riding on the crest of a slump lately.

Misery is the River of the World

Arithmetic arithmetock Turn the hands back on the clock How does the ocean rock the boat? How did the razor find my throat? The only strings that hold me here Are tangled up around the pier.

In terms of black music - the only music that we can call our own, that was really born here - I don't think a lot has been done to chronicle the relations between American history and where black music fits in.