“Not any specific one, but I was a huge fan of Frank Jacobs, I guess he wrote the plurality of the song parodies for MAD, Sam Hart, a few others, but that was also where I was first exposed to the art form of song parodies.”

When I swore that you’re getting more and more beautiful everyday. Well, I was only kidding, honey.

I’d like to be able to be more topical and timely and more of-the-moment and I think the way to do that is, instead of waiting until I have twelve songs to release all at once, just to release them as I come up with them.

You still have Top 40 radio now, but it’s 40 different stations. There aren’t many hits that everybody knows, and there aren’t many real superstars.

It’s hard to really articulate what the parameters are that make one song parody-able and another song not, but if I can come up with a good enough idea for it, I go for it, and if not, then I have to move on.

Maybe I’ll make a huge color tapestry from my belly button lint.

I like to think that I’ve gotten better at what I do. I spend more time and pay more attention to detail album after album. But pretty much it’s stayed the same.

I did have a child, and I was reading a lot of picture books to her, but at the same time writing a children’s book was something that I’d been wanting to do for many years, pretty much since the start of my career.

I’m very analytical, I’m very precise. I mean, I don’t write for kids.

I know now that everything I write, I’m going to put out, and I’ll have to live with it for the rest of my life.

I’ve done a movie and a TV series, and someday I’d like to do a successful movie and a successful TV series. That would be nice.

They do everything from gangsta rap to polka music and every genre in between. It’s amazing.

I don’t want to hear about this train being derailed! What happened to ‘The Flintstones’?’

He died a long painful death. However, you’ll be happy to hear that just a few years later he was reincarnated as Shirley MacLaine.

I always try to put myself out of my comfort zone and out of my depth, and hopefully somewhere along the line I’ll catch up.

I knew we were having problems when you put those piranhas in my bathtub again.

There are a lot of songs that would ostensibly be a good candidate for parody, yet I can’t think of a clever enough idea.

I’ve met some Evertonians in the street, and they’ve been friendly. I’ve had taxi drivers who have been Everton fans. They’ve been really nice.

As far as songwriters, I’ve always been a fan of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin; those guys mean a lot to me.

This younger generation that’s around, that’s tweeting, Facebooking and Vine-ing, the fans appreciate that because they feel like they can get to you.

Fans want the best, wherever they come from.

The fans make the person a star.

Just like every person who works for Dortmund is a fan of the club, it was the same at Mainz.

As Dortmund manager, I lived in a street, and my two neighbours were Schalke fans. They showed it every day, flying flags!

I’ve always said that I play for the fans.