“Historically, musicians know what it is like to be outside the norm – walking the high wire without a safety net. Our experience is not so different from those who march to the beat of different drummers.”

You’re so ahead of yourself That you forfeit what you need Though you can see when you’re wrong

I’m writing for the sake of writing music. Whether it gets heard or not isn’t an issue for me. It keeps my own juices going and my mind active.

Don’t make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money.

I’m in a New York state of mind

Usually when I’m writing, I try to write fairly quickly. If a song sits around too long, it starts to take on a stink.

You’ve given me the best of you, but now I need the rest of you.

This is our moment, here at the cross-roads of time. Time is relentless and as the past dissappears, we’re on the verge of all things new.

As an atheist you have to rationalize things… Then you have to try and make some sort of sense out of your problems. And if you try and find you can’t, you have no choice but to be good and scared — but that’s okay!

My songs are like my kids.

There’s nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex.

Don’t go changing, to try and please me You never let me down before.

Remember how I found you there alone in your electric chair, I told you dirty jokes until you smiled.

It’s alright, you can afford to lose a day or two

You may never understand How the stranger is inspired For he is not always evil, And he is not always wrong.

Videos destroyed the vitality of rock and roll. Before that, music said, “Listen to me.” Now it says, “Look at me.”

There’s a deep-seated paranoia that Americans have about not being Americans or something.

Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.

Americans don’t like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don’t like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don’t like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make ’em a lot of money.

Certain drummers drop time, and I like to play on top of the beat.

Whatever I’d say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was one of the greatest people I’ve ever known, as a man, a friend, and a musician.

The main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.

I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

I really like Katy Perry and the music she does. She’s an amazing musician and it’s an honour to be opening for her in London.