I would hope they would be our fellow artists rather than trying to emulate or idolize clowns like us.

I made a real specific decision when I came out of school and most artists were writing about home - if you were a woman you were writing about being a woman - and I decided not to do that write about what you know. That's not what I do. I went as far away from home as possible in terms of the development of my imagination.

I have a long-standing history of respecting artists' wishes.

As musicians and artists it's important we have an environment - and I guess when I say environment I really mean the industry that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society.

Sadness is a very interesting idea this idea of sadness being some kind of default setting that artists will go into. And then I started thinking about this idea of sadness and happiness and the idea that sadness is very loud and happiness is quiet.

The pop musicians often leave meaning in the dust and substitute it for cartoons. The deeper artists - the grunge artists in the world and the emoticon people - tend to leave all of the happiness out of life like it just doesn't exist.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

Good artists copy great artists steal.

I would like to see a future where artists think that they have a right to contemplate things like global warming.

I'm a big fan of certain new acts. I love any genre of music and I think it's really great to see that there are new artists coming through. It's kinda funny to think that I'm like the old man on campus now. But I'm really happy for groups like One Direction. I think they're really good guys.