The first time I started listening to Irish music, I had a very strong connection. Strangely enough, there's a great many Japanese melodies and vocal styles that sound very much like Hungarian music. You start seeing all these cross-references and comparative, independent musical cultures.

I like turning on two radios at once. I like hearing things wrong… I get a lot of ideas by mishearing things.

I danced along a colored wind/ Dangled from a rope of sand

I think all songs should have weather in them. Names of towns and streets, and they should have a couple of sailors. I think those are just song prerequisites.

You know, we just buy music now. We don't make it any more. And that goes for just about everything. I think it's so important that people develop and subscribe to and have confidence in their own ability to make music, however rough it is.

There's a place on my arm where I've written her name next to mine.

I've seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train.