The music takes on all different jobs and hopefully is part of telling the story. Each song has to be a story unto itself. It's a very different set of muscles.

I feel my work is a success in so far as I get to wake up every morning and do what I love to do more than anything in the world.

If my life is not crazy and complicated, then something's wrong. I'm happiest when it is, and the fact of the matter is, it's what keeps me fresh.

I enjoy the kind of characters that allow you to write the dark stuff. I love Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, and when I'm writing for Dracula or Jekyll & Hyde, I get a chance to use that vocabulary.

When you are writing for an artist you are trying to get into that artist's point of view. What does that artist want to say? What do they care about? And musically, you want to show off that artist.

Rise above your fears and you rise above your world.

This life is nothing but a short, painful dream.

Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.--Ray Bradbury

And little eagles wave their wings in gold.

I would love to do a Western again if Westerns came back into fashion.

The truth is out there somewhere, but the dog needs to be walked.

Because my heat was too full of appreciation for what my friends-- my real friends-- had done for me.

I worship makeup. The basics are always: Stila shadows, LeClerc powder for my crazy shiny skin, Bobbie brown liner pot, Chanel mascara, and Koh Gen Do for foundation, Nars for colors and sparkles.

The most important thing is to write material that YOU think is funny. If you don't think it's funny, but you're convinced that other people will think it is, well they won't.

The zeitgeist is ever-changing. If you try second guess what people want, you'll miss it.