Then I thought I was going to be a photographer. I tried a hand at darkroom technician. I played in a band. It took me quite some time to discover that I wanted to write.
When I was 22 years old, I thought girls would like me if I wrote a novel. I spent so much time writing that I was thrown out of graduate school.
And I used to write novels and little stories and compositions and I - but I put them away because I started acting when I was 17. So there wasn't much time.
I always had to wait until something hit me, and I could write it. But when I would cut an album, to me it represented the time that I spent since the last one. Just the way I was looking at the world.
From the time I could play the piano, I remember trying to write tunes. They were in my head, and I would just sit down and start noodling. Next thing I knew, I had written a melody.
I was brought up in many different cultures, moving around all the time, and I find my identity in my songs. I project the identity I want to have throughout the songs that I write.
Once the travel guide came out and won an award, once I got an MFA in creative writing, once I sold my next novel, I finally started telling people that I was a writer. I remember how special that year felt.
I was trained as a fine artist. I went to a progressive public school in Pennsylvania that developed these talents, but I was never able to apply to a decent college because I had no math, no science - I was allowed to just paint all day and write.
But then I go through long periods where I don't listen to things, usually when I'm working. In between the records and in between the writing I suck up books and music and movies and anything I can find.
As a composer at a point where I can absolutely pick and choose what I want to do, I don't want to write about anybody I don't care about.
I am flying back to New York as I write this. I will never forget these wonderful 35 days and I would go back to Copenhagen in a heartbeat to work there again.
I want to sell to people my own age, because that's the way I write songs.
I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life.
Writing is my passion, expression and an incessant obsession.
I go on writing so that I will always have something to read.
There's no way I can stop writing, it's a form of insanity.
Without a great man writing and directing for me, I realised I was a mediocre movie star at best.
If I stopped writing and being at my piano, I wouldn't know how to live. It's your best friend.
I earned two Emmy nominations for writing, and two of the shows I had written were nominated for best in their category.
I think every band is a little cautious when the drummer starts to write tunes.
Writing for me can be homework. I do get a lot from it in the end. But I hate doing it.
