I remain a humanist. We are a very curious race.

Shiva danced the world into existence... that's a very nice thought.

The blues are like the fugue in 18th century. It's probably the music that belongs most to our time.

Music remains the most strange of the materials because we don't understand what happens when music moves you.

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

I'm outside the music I've made. I have no interest in it.

Poetry is fascinating. As soon as it begins the poetry has changed the thing into something extra, and somehow prose can go over into poetry.

I've seldom become nostalgic or settled.

The Greek sculptor - I don't think he was very different from any of us.

I think we're all pretty odd.

Music is a performing art, as any Native American will tell you. It isn't there in the score.

Ill-fitted T-shirts stretched over a gut are my pet hate. And if the colour's faded - ugh.

If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'

Earth's dispossessed are vulnerable targets for extremists: those who teach that global justice is meaningless; that satisfaction can come only in violence, division, and intellectual isolation.

I do think a key to success in any walk of life is having a short memory and a thick skin - I know it has served me well over the years.

For me able to do the records I want to do and not have to worry about this producer or that producer or that trend, I'm not really interested in that.

I do remember how sexy my collection was after I first got involved with Stephan [Weiss]. That's one thing I don't have in my life now and...if anything, that's one thing I would love.

Most of humanity gets by without reading novels or poetry, and no one would deny the richness of their thoughts.

Treasure the things about you that make you different and unique.

I never went to sleep thinking and dreaming that I wanted to be an actor. It just kind of fell on my lap and I said, "Okay, maybe I can do this? Lets see.".

Ninety-five percent of the time when I run a contest I've purchased the giveaway prizes with advertising money.