I've always liked the idea of improvised music. Improvised anything. It's what conversation is.

It's very schizophrenic because I like a lot of very straight pop, like Small Faces, Stones, Kinks; and on the other hand, I like a lot of avant garde things.

You may leave school, but it never leaves you.

We do this for the art, not the adulation. I'd rather our music get liked and we get ignored. I don't want to be adored for anything other than the music.

I felt pressured by continuous touring.

It's sort of what jazz would be if it stopped being snobby and what rock would be if it stopped being stupid.

The early gigs were pretty panicky - and great, sweaty fun. We were brand new to most people, and they were willing to take anything brand new, for the first time in years.

For a heart without love is a song with no words And a tune to which no one is listening So your heart must give love and you'll find that You shine like rain on the leaves you'll be glistening.

People will always be tempted to wipe their feet on anything with 'welcome' written on it.

I suppose my father was more influential in my starting to play the guitar.

My parents, especially my mother, were no influence on me whatsoever.

Books have a vital place in our culture. They are the source of ideas, of stories that engage and stretch the imagination and most importantly, inspire.

Have you been hitting the wine or my mother's brownies again?

A healthy mind observes and questions itself. This is the path to inner peace and happiness. Don’t believe everything you think.

I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.

With me it's the whole thing, it's the conceit, the idea, what the poem is saying. And it goes on just as long as is necessary to say what needs to be said.

I think the primary message to the world is that the United States is going to remain the strongest military power in the world.

For feel-good fiction to work, there has to be an element of darkness.

It is not raining to me, It's raining daffodils; In every dimpled drop I see Wild flowers on distant hills.

Wrecked on the lee shore of age.

It's a sword. said the Hogfather. They're not meant to be safe.