Beauty can't amuse you but brainwork - reading writing thinking - can.

All my writing is about the recognition that there is no single reality. But the beauty of it is that you nevertheless go on walking towards utopia which may not exist on a bridge which might end before you reach the other side.

Because if one is writing novels today concentrating on the beauty of the prose is right up there with concentrating on your semi-colons for wasted effort.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful for beauty is God's handwriting.

My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet. And then your friends say: It's terrific!

On 'Van Halen ' I was a young punk and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning ' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger.

It has taken me years of struggle hard work and research to learn to make one simple gesture and I know enough about the art of writing to realize that it would take as many years of concentrated effort to write one simple beautiful sentence.

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

There are so many opportunities in life that the loss of two or three capabilities is not necessarily debilitating. A handicap can give you the opportunity to focus more on art writing or music.

I love doing normal things - movies shopping going out with friends writing reading taking hot bubble baths - that's a big one for relaxation. I also love to go to art and history museums.