For me, it's all about The Dubliners by James Joyce. I love The Dead.

CDs, too. Totally corporate. They look real cheap and soulless and they don't smell of anything.

I'd forgotten what it was like to play music and have it be fun so I decided to stop. I wasn't even sure if I was going to make a new record, I was just kinda quitting.

I don't like alcohol, but I still like to mess around with other stuff occasionally. I think it's important I take mushrooms and acid. They're certainly not addictive, so I can't rule that out.

When there are no women on the tour it can get awful and ugly - constant horrible jokes and gross behaviour. It needs to be leavened with a feminine presence.

I used to have a sort of spiky haircut and it just feels better to have short hair again.

It is hard, though, 'cos record labels love to boss you around. I won't let them do that anymore.

I lie around and play guitar, that's something I do for sure. In fact that's all I do, I think.

I guess I'm about ready to promote myself in a more human way. I don't feel quite so insecure.

My high-school dream was to be in a band, pay my rent and eat - and I've been able to do that for 20 years. So I'm completely content.

When I was 14 years old, I was a huge fan of the Velvets, the Stooges and the Modern Lovers. They are my three favourite bands. I never get sick of 'em.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

The world changes too fast. You take your eyes off something that's always been there, and the next minute it's just a memory.

I appreciate the beauty and balm of flowers but I have never enjoyed receiving them because then I have to watch them die, and worse...throw them away.

I'm really a romantic at heart.

It's difficult when you're successful, to admit that you need help.

In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold. All the floors were rotten. Filth on the floors an inch thick; one could slip and fall.

There is a line between a definite maybe and an indefinite yes.

Intelligence is nothing without delight.

Music for me, it demands full concentration.

As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it.