I don't want to be in Mötley Crüe or something.

We're probably a couple of freaks who've created their own little universe, are living in our own little world and that's the only place where we can survive.

Lou Reed is something like a personal favorite of mine, but you could always put me into that drawer of singers who can't really sing, who speak their songs.

If a voice is just too nice, without an edge, it kinda all flows by. You forget it. You don't listen to the lyrics.

A good voice isn't so important. It's more important to sound really unique.

I'm not sure if you can blame everything on the American way of life, but the United States are big. So, if you have a lot of people there, the percentage of stupid people is bound to be higher.

I think most musicians know if they make the same record twice, even if they say they don't.

Despite my own doubts of being marketable or crushworthy, my goal was to write a record of peppy pop songs, hopefully without annoying anybody.

We're not on a desperate mission to write chart compatible stuff.

I didn't really like confessional poetry or things. They seemed sort of dated to me, or just corny.

The lyrics are different from Nick Cave songs and lyrics. His songs are very narrative.

I just want my stories to be mine.

Everything is happening according to the ‘drawing’ [past causes], You just have to ‘see’ them. Desires are ‘drawings’ too.

the human soul, by once suffering as much as it is capable of, purchases a strange and terrible immunity to all the rest of life's sorrows.

I had an idea and I wanted just to make it work. And I am never, ever secure on the set that what I am doing is going to translate to the screen. It never changes.

You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.

It's okay to fail; it's not okay to quit.

Parents and children were put on earth to give each other grief. You were my punishment for how I behaved to my own father. And I'll have my revenge when you have children of your own.

I'm not an extravagant man. The fact that I can have a coffee out whenever I want still makes me feel grateful.

We put our best foot forward, but it's the other one that needs the attention.

You're never going to learn everything.