If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children things that touch your soul.

Written poetry is different. Best thing is to see it in performance first then read it. Performance is more provocative.

Pop stardom is not very compelling. I'm much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music and there's no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There's no like 'I'll be the rock star you be the adulating fan.'

I think what made it difficult for people to get and still makes it difficult for people to get is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that my music doesn't exist without the performance-art element.

Why do musicians give so much time to charitable causes? The most humanitarian cause that we can give our time to is the creation and performance of music itself.

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

Music in performance is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.

I think movies are a director's medium in the end. Theater is the actor's medium. Theater is fast and enjoyable and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.

I've done performances in movies that I was immensely proud of and the movies didn't take off like a rocket at Cape Canaveral it didn't take off.

I love movies with spectacle but spectacle can be a performance it doesn't have to be a creature.