I never belonged anywhere. I just felt like a creature from another planet.

I'm still grappling with all the things most people resolve by the time they're 35. Maybe that's why I make music that is relevant to young people. I'm emotionally stuck at the age of 13.

Fashion goes round in circles.

This is what I am. I have periods of enormous self-destructive depression, where I go completely off my trolley and lose all sight of reality and reason.

Music is a gut thing. You're working in a medium which is more in touch with the primal than the modern. A gig is a ritual. There's a congregation.

I'm absolutely obsessed with The Jesus And Mary Chain and Patti Smith, but I'm a massive pop fan. I love pop culture, It's a total reflection of the zeitgeist.

If you suffer from depression, anything that makes you feel has to the most important thing in your life, because it's the only thing that can save you.

I just can't seem to write songs about peace and love. Yeah right, how do you get that?

It's tragic when people think feminism is a dirty word.

I love to sing old Motown songs to myself, or some Patti Smith Edith Piaf or Billie Holiday. That gets me in the mood for singing.

Pop music allows you to be who you are without having to wear a social uniform or to conform, which some people find impossible to do.

Guys usually like my sense of humor, and I am pretty down to earth. And I'm a driven person.

I've never, ever had any therapy. Some might say I need it, but I've never seen a shrink or a psychologist or anything like that.

While conservatism and self-protection might be likened to winter, night, and death, the spirit of pioneering and attempting to realize ideals evokes images of spring, morning, and birth.

Wisdom is the ability to do two things at once, to be in the world and enjoy it and at the same time, to be in the realms of light, to be in samadhi.

Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else.

Any intelligent woman would have made a dignified retreat, but this was New Jersey, where dignity always runs a poor second to the pleasure of getting in someone's face.

Nobody is going to feel sorry for me if I've lost a dollar or $100m.

We get used to a certain kind of colour of form or format, and it's acceptable. And to puncture that is sticking your neck out a bit. And then pretty soon, that's very acceptable.

I am ashamed of my emptiness," said the Word to the Work. "I know how poor I am when I see you," said the Work to the Word.

It’s not part of our Constitution to assume that we are the world’s policemen.