I am, in some sense, a writer. Even though I kinda downplay the word thing, I do enjoy writing sometimes.
There was a fascinating handmade poster scene in Chicago in the '90s, and I became friends with many of the artists; the posters were often more impressive than the bands.
In school I was painfully shy. But as soon as I had to get up in front of the class and give a book report, it was alarming - I'd suddenly be very articulate.
My head is full of shifting patterns and polyrhythmic stuff; but I want to use all acoustic instruments and create this kind of tapestry of interlocking lulling parts.
If anyone hits me, they can expect to be hit back, and harder. I never turn the other cheek because in my experience that doesn’t work.
I am quite loud and bolshie. I'm a big personality. I walk into a room, big and tall and loud.
I'm really happy to be me, and I'd like to think people like me more because I'm happy with myself and not because I refuse to conform to anything.
I don't know if we ever fully get over the pain of watching a child trying to find their way through a world that too often doesn't understand.
Inspired by the purse rather than the soul, the mercenary side fairly screams in many of the works put out by every day American publishers.
We are rich in the quantity of songs rather than in the quality. The singer has to go through hundreds of compositions before he finds one that really says something.
French is, in many ways, more difficult for an English-speaking person to sing. It is so full of complex and trying vowels. It requires the utmost subtlety.
I think for a woman, the hardest thing about growing old is becoming invisible. There's something very front and center about being young.
I thought I would be governor of Massachusetts. I stood on a pile of my old albums and said, 'I'm the only one with a record to stand on.'
I wish that you knew you could never make it without love for your goddamned self, and that you'll never ever find it in anybody else.
I like songs that sound like classics. There are songs that might be cooler or have better production, but I like songs that sound like they're timeless.
I grew up in Vancouver, which is a pretty liberal, gay Mecca of the West coast. There's San Francisco, and then there's Vancouver.
In 1940 I came across a record by Jimmy Yancey. I can't say how important that record is. From then on, all I wanted to do was play the blues.
In those days, between the ages of 12 and 18 you meant nothing. You were the extra place at the side table if someone came to dinner. You were of no interest to anyone.
There's a character that I play onstage, and I can't let him loose in the supermarket when I'm buying my beans on toast.
It's impossible to make a record when you're ill because it affects how you listen to things. You can't make decisions. It all sounds terrible.
Nelson Mandela is awe inspiring - a person who really sacrificed for what he believed in. I feel truly humbled by him.
