The best songs I write in 20 minutes.

When I write a song, it's all about the riff - the riff first, then the words come later.

See, to me, rock'n'roll doesn't have any point. It's just fun. It has a million different angles and they're all valid. But I think rock might be a world issue.

You know more about me than I do about myself, that's probably true.

Even the bands I dig don't have a history of attaining mass consumption.

I used to have a sort of spiky haircut and it just feels better to have short hair again.

Basically, between 1989 and 1994, I hadn't taken a vacation.

Rock stars wanting to write is even worse than wanting to act in movies, right?

But Sneaky Pete was great. I didn't bug him about Gram. Not too much, anyway.

For me, it's all about The Dubliners by James Joyce. I love The Dead.

I've got time, I hope, to make lots of quiet records. So quiet you won't be able to hear them.

CDs, too. Totally corporate. They look real cheap and soulless and they don't smell of anything.

I lie around and play guitar, that's something I do for sure. In fact that's all I do, I think.

It is hard, though, 'cos record labels love to boss you around. I won't let them do that anymore.

I don't write down my experiences, but I have a very decent memory. I have tons of books in which I write down phrases as they occur to me. That's how I write songs. I'll need a line and I'll go through the books and find it, the right rhyme and everything.

Since Elizabeth, I certainly live a healthier lifestyle.

It's better when you have your wife with you, more fun.

I was trying to spend it as quickly as possible. Because I'm so lazy, all that money created a block. I was flying around the world, staying at fancy hotels, having fun and trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible, so I could get on with some more work.

My high-school dream was to be in a band, pay my rent and eat - and I've been able to do that for 20 years. So I'm completely content.

Some of our stuff ends up looking too corporate. I'm going to be a lot stricter from now on.

I need the money. People don't understand how little money you make in a band.

I guess I'm about ready to promote myself in a more human way. I don't feel quite so insecure.

I'd forgotten what it was like to play music and have it be fun so I decided to stop. I wasn't even sure if I was going to make a new record, I was just kinda quitting.

When there are no women on the tour it can get awful and ugly - constant horrible jokes and gross behaviour. It needs to be leavened with a feminine presence.

But ya have to make videos in the States. Usually ours just look too serious. We haven't got it together.

When I was 14 years old, I was a huge fan of the Velvets, the Stooges and the Modern Lovers. They are my three favourite bands. I never get sick of 'em.

The best songs I write in 20 minutes.

I was hanging out with Jonathan Richman last night.

I don't like alcohol, but I still like to mess around with other stuff occasionally. I think it's important I take mushrooms and acid. They're certainly not addictive, so I can't rule that out.

I have to make rock records occasionally.

I started recording because I was always complaining about the records that I was getting of my songs. At least if I did them and messed them up, I wouldn't have anyone else to blame.

Then I decided I couldn't just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction.

The things in my songs are the edited highlights of my life. I don't go seeking out strange sexual experiences every day of the week.

The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.

All my songs were solo voices. Just me singing. In fact, that was the gimmick - no gimmick. Just singing straight with not too much background.

It's part of the calling to at least do a few songs in the show that give people some hope. There's so much hurt in this world and... music is such a great healing balm and a great way to forget your troubles.

Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.

My vocal ability is very limited, but I'm fortunate in that I can write the songs around my vocal limitations.

I've written many extra verses to songs that I learned to sing - an extra verse about a friend, or just add some verse - and that led to writing my own songs.

When I heard his first songs, Dylan was answering certain questions that I had all my life been asking myself.

The bands that wrote the big, heroic rock songs - I really wanted to make a record like that.

Every time the guys were knocked out by my guitar playing and the girls were knocked out by the type of songs I did. That set us apart from the average blues band.

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.

All my songs are where I am.

That's what I like to do, I like to make songs.

We would turn everything into songs in those days.

Sometimes, but the year I lived in France I started to write songs.

Writing songs has a therapeutic effect, and it either kills off love or wins the heart of the lover.

I had deeper, more reflective songs on the first album.