Zen Buddhism is a discipline where belief isn't necessary.

It wasn't my natural inclination to get into writing protest songs.

Sometimes a little compromise isn't a bad thing. You don't need to be precious about it.

The public so often want to freeze the artist in a moment in time when they were at their peak, and they want the artist to revisit it over and over again as if it was something authentic.

I like to explore a lot of textural, arrangement aspects in the studio.

I don't listen to a lot of music any more and even the people I've loved for years - the Nick Drakes of this world - I can't go back to them and listen to them over and over.

Creating a decent pop song is a challenge - and occasionally, once in every decade - it's kind of fun to do that.

I'm obsessed with books.

I knew that I had to find my own voice, both figuratively and literally.

During the lifetime of Japan I became very neurotic, very paranoid.

Finally I was able to see that if I had a contribution I wanted to make, I must do it, despite what others said. That I was OK the way I was. That it was all right to be strong.

I believe in my sacred self.

Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.

God and nature create nothing that does not fulfill a purpose

I was quite unable to make any white metal alloy hard enough to be made into powder by my machinery

Place the team above yourself always.

Reason is always weak where prejudice is strong.

The laws of nature are structured so that we grow and change, and get to experience the full spectrum of biological existence.

Just because I write in the first person doesn't mean that all my songs are autobiographical.

I, too, saw God through mud - The mud that cracked on cheeks when wretches smiled. War brought more glory to their eyes than blood, And gave their laughs more glee than shakes a child.