"A rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind."

"Genius worship is the inevitable sign of an uncreative age."

"Great art picks up where nature ends."

"For my 23rd birthday, I received a nylon string guitar. I told myself that if I could play Eric Clapton's 'Tears In Heaven,' then I could play the guitar. I practised every chance I got, driving my housemates insane, until several weeks later I had a shaky version of the song down. I wrote my first song on the guitar a few weeks after that."

"Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading."

"The romanticised life, where all the great poetry and music and art of the world comes from, is great but it requires a lot of self-indulgence."