I just love putting on a show. I get a tremendous sense of community out of it.

Aloha Earth, this is Elvis calling. You'll find me in the big house now.

When I was writing this new bunch of songs, I was singing a lot lower, because they were more intimate in a way. I had to come up with a way to frame the music that was intimate.

Novels may have taken care of the emotional business for me, which has allowed music to be more emotional for me.

I do find that most fans are aware of my writing career and have known my real name for many years.

If they'd said, "Do you want to be John Wesley Harding or Wesley Stace in 25 years' time?" I would have said Wesley Stace, but I wasn't to know.

If somebody had said to me back in 1988 that I'd still be making music in 25 years' time, to start with I would have keeled over with shock because I wouldn't have believed them.

There's nothing I like more than a writer who can sing, or a musician who has a book out.

The only problem with conjuring people is they insist on getting paid, unlike a writer who would do a reading for nothing.

Your heart knows there is a greater version of your life available to you.

The really happy person is the one who can enjoy the scenery, even when they have to take a detour.

Black people have been killed for directing their gaze at the wrong person. I want my subjects to reclaim their right to look, to see, to be seen.

I mean, at the end of the day when I'm making a record, what I want to do is what I do

You have to be humble when you're dealing with God.

When you're aggressive behind the plate, calling a game, that's when you're at your best. You can't be tentative.

The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion.

In those days [1935] I would read what the opposition papers got out, and I'd say to myself, 'What I'm doing just isn't good enough.'

I think we have to find a leader who reflects all of our concerns and not just some of them.

I've done a lot of geeky things in my life, but I think the geekiest of all was my first effort to build props and cosplay, when I was about twelve years-old.