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.

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

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

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.

I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth and they never believe me.

Hashish will be, indeed, for the impressions and familiar thoughts of the man, a mirror which magnifies, yet no more than a mirror.

Secrets are the currency of intimacy

The truth is I would do my job for free! I love it every day. If you can possibly choose a vocation that's an avocation, a job that's really a hobby, then you'll be way ahead of the game.

Any kind of political campaign that taps the kind of energy that nothing else can reach would generate a tremendous high for everybody involved in it.

In old time we had treen chalices and golden priests, but now we have treen priests and golden chalices.

Very specifically, Nickelodeon is aimed at eight- and nine-year-olds.

The poem . . . is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life.

The genitals themselves have not undergone the development of the rest of the human form in the direction of beauty.

But men are men; the best sometimes forget.