I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

I get bored easily so I need to do a lot. I've started a record label so I get to nurture new talent and talk about music which is a passion of mine. I've written another book. And I get to come to work and do the TV show which is always really fun.

Look when I started out mainstream culture was Sinatra Perry Como Andy Williams Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course there's no fitting into it now.

What's that line from TS Eliot? To arrive at the place where you started but to know it for the first time. I'm able to write about a breakup from a different place. Same brokenness. Same rock-bottom. But a little more informed now I'm older. Thank God for growing up.

The reason I started writing movies was because I kept getting parts that I just kind of stepped into. I didn't have to do a lot of work and I ended up getting sort of bored.

When I started doing movies every crew member was older than me.

I didn't know this about myself but when 'Pirates of the Caribbean' came out I realised that I didn't enjoy a huge amount of recognition. I didn't react to it well but I think life is about finding out who you are and what you like. So I started doing independent movies and art-house films instead.

Skinniness is not your friend when you're over 40. I'd like to gain a good 10 pounds but I did always have a fat round face that plagued me when I was young. When I started to make movies I couldn't look at myself.

I never think it's right to chew gum in front of other people but a lot of times I'll come in for a meeting chewing gum and I'll forget I'm chewing it. Then you don't want to swallow it because it stays in your system for seven years or something so I've asked to throw it away. I've started to wonder if that's why I didn't get certain movies.

When I started to watch some of the films I'd done I realized I was doing movies that I might not actually want to see.