My mum was very interested in art and liked to write, and my dad was a hobbyist photographer.

It's very important to me that every person takes away their own meaning from a song, and it's why I don't always love spelling out what a song is about for somebody.

Even though some of the films I've made haven't been particularly commercial, I don't find them failures.

Singing these days has become a mechanical exercise for many, and mostly this is because song situations that require effort from the heart are rare to come by.

I'm not like a champion of profanity. I write what I hear, and the characters that I write, that's how they talk. That's how I talk a lot of the time. So I'm not trying to advance a social cause.

If, at the end of the day, I can look back and see pictures of all the characters I've played, and there's a smorgasbord of weirdos and interesting, odd, different characters, I'd be so happy.

There's a difference between a pop star and an artist. Pop stars have to be perfect all the time; an artist is allowed, on occasion, to suck. And I put myself in that category because I sometimes...

I started publishing my comic while I was still living with my parents.

Looking back at my earlier pictures, I think that the work is very much coming from the same place. I have gone through a period of challenging myself with a complicated idea to currently challenging...

It's hard to say things without coming off in a certain way, but at a young age, I felt very driven. All I ever wanted to be is a soldier of cinema.

I have this idea that you can use glamour and still have it represent something that matters.

A guitar being played by an actual person is never going to be as precise and perfect as a programmed synthesizer. But we maintain there is value in the potential for human error.

I love improv. 'Crazy, Stupid, Love,' the script was really great, but the directors were open to letting you try different things. And that felt like a muscle I hadn't exercised in a really long...

There was a danger when I was in So Solid and we made '21 Seconds.' But we're just showing a slice of life.

I don't think that independent or off-beat films are not commercial, nor do I want to categorise them. At the end of the day, what matters is how much you compromise to please the masses. But, I am...

I think being an actress is more how to cope with the fact that you can't do anything else than to express a talent. It's a way of being untalented for anything.

It's interesting because what I do and what I sing is, to other people, pretty unique. I feel I'm creating my own path... and I'm working on growing as a performer.

For example, I noticed that every single kid in the high school in 'The Death-Ray' is based on somebody I went to high school with.

I'm the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain?

There's something about actors - not stars, but actors - if they have the character, and someone is pushing and shoving them to be the best they can be, they enjoy that.

I love doing improv. I love comedy. I have always felt this way, even when I was really young.

Oh my goodness me, Daniel Day-Lewis - huge, huge fan of his. I've always loved his philosophy on acting: he always talks about returning to a state of play.

I never look at how many songs I have or how many girls are there in a movie. If I like my character, I play it.

A lot of movies are about life, mine are like a slice of cake.

I don't just want a gripping story line. I shoot for the three dimensional literary Braille to a silent Scorsese movie

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

To become the love of a poet is to become both a muse and an immortal all at the same time.

Sometimes poets expect me to think far deeper than I'm willing to dig.

Music is for souls & hearts to dance & sing. Art is for expressing your visionary being. Words are tools for exploring & celebrating. Time is a pool to swim & dream & create in. Waste not one jot of...

She said that everything had colour in her thought; the months of the year ran through all the tints of the spectrum, the days of the week were arrayed as Solomon in his glory, morning was golden,...