I spent, as you know, a year and a half in a clergyman's family and heard almost every Tuesday the very best, most earnest and most impressive preacher it has ever been my fortune to meet with, but it produced no effect whatever on my mind.
I'm quite good on the harmonica and can get a tune out of most musical instruments, so long as the tune is 'Oh Susannah.'
People are so used to reading novels now, they just read a poem straight through to get the meaning. And that's something totally different from the slow way you read something if it's a tune; which to me a poem has to be.
As long as a tune has the power to move me, I'm a lifelong fan.
It's so hard to pick a 'single.' I always want it to be whatever my favorite tune is, but often the record company and the person whose job it is to take it to radio have different ideas.
Instead of thinking that's a nice tune, you start thinking is it the right pace, is it the right tempo? That is the death nell for artists.
I'm in this to change my life, to change my fortunes. I'm not in there to just fight for free.
Bike riding is great for your thinking. I can't say I've written an entire tune while cycling, but riding has definitely inspired songwriting ideas.
I'm trying to play tunes in a new way, using all the same scales, harmonies, structures, but twist everything a little bit so that it comes out sounding different.
I never really acted full-time. I certainly had gotten past the point where fame and fortune was something that I was dreaming about or anticipating.
