"When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings - to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue."

"Editing is now the easiest thing on earth to do, and all the things that evolved out of word processing - 'Oh, let's put that sentence there, let's get rid of this' - have become commonplace in films and music too."

"I take sounds and change them into words."

"The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one's furniture."

"There are two ways to go about it. You can take a compass and draw a perfect circle and make two perfect eyes as neat as can be. Or you can do it freehand and have some fun with it. Like I did. Give it character."

"Popular music usually has a chorus that needs to repeat, and people need to remember the song. That's sort of the major guideline when you're writing a song."

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on."

"For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art."