My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.

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

Well you say that it's gospel, But I know that it's only church.

I'm trying to learn how to write faster.

Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who's connected with it, the studio's gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing that's left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago.

The moon was sharp enough to draw blood from a stone

It wasn't good for my nerves, that kind of work - a fireman. I've got high blood pressure. I get upset easily. I don't think that was a proper career alternative for me.