People always ask what a book is about, as if it has to be about something. I don't want to write books that lend themselves to that sort of description. My books are more a kind of breaking-down.

Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it, putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before.

You want to tell a story? Grow a heart. Grow two. Now, with the second heart, smash the first one into bits.

My mom was an orphan, and there was never anybody to tell her what she could or couldn't do. At the core, she's probably an artist - an artist and a feminist.

My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly.

When you stand on the stage you must have a sense that you are addressing the whole world, and that what you say is so important the whole world must listen.