Fictional characters exist in only two places, neither of which is on the printed page. They exist, first, in the mind of the writer and, second, in the mind of the reader.

All art is concerned with the creation of an emotional reaction on the part of the beholder.

plot is character in action.

Things hurt more when you were alone, that was all.

I'd much rather talk about guitar playing. I hate it when people ask me about my lyrics. I always feel like telling them to just go and read them.

I don't think there is anything hard at all about having a lot of songs. It makes it easier to be less precious about them, and know that everybody's going to want to work on some of them.

I have always been the lover - never the beloved - and I have spent much of my life waiting for trains, planes, boats, footsteps, doorbells, letters, telephones, snow, rain, thunder.

If I'm 40 years old and wearing a 30 waist, that's pretty good.

Sir John Hall was a multi-millionaire when I came back to Newcastle. With all the players I've bought, I'm trying to make him just an ordinary millionaire.

The fact is, we need help, and we need each other.

I just really wanted to be myself. I wanted to be sassy, the attitude, all these things that I am.

But I don't want to have to stop feeling. I really think I'd rather die than stop feeling.

A major writer combines these three - storyteller, teacher, enchanter - but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major writer.