I was a functional addict.
I have a love-hate relationship with the Grammys because I don't see the music world as a competitive sport.
Once you get that two-way energy thing going, everyone benefits hugely.
I think people are isolated because of the nature of human consciousness, and they like it when they feel the connection between themselves and someone else.
What I've always done as an entertainer is try to come up with things that people will find interesting, or compelling, or humorous.
To me, very much of what is artistic is people's very creative and inventive ways out of impossible situations.
You have to choose whether to love yourself or not.
I tend to write out the first iteration of a lyric here and then go over here and make variations on it, on the page opposite.
I don't get into heavy political numbers because I don't find them lyrical.
I know there are people who don't like their audience or like the experience of being recognized or celebrated, but my audience has been very good - they don't bother me and when they do contact me it's usually on the nicest possible terms.
I don't know much about God. But if everything does originate with God, then certainly songs do as well.
Though 'Fire and Rain' is very personal, for other people it resonates as a sort of commonly held experience... And that's what happens with me. I write things for personal reasons, and then in some cases it... can be a shared experience.
Photographers and reporters are mostly after me. They want to know what I read and what I'm like and I don't really know myself, so how can I tell them?
I'm looking forward to being able to retire from being a public figure and being able to afford to be myself!
I don't reinvent myself in any major way. It seems to be a slow evolution. I go back and visit certain themes that I feel strongly about and resonate with me emotionally.
Performing is a profound experience, at least for me. It's not as if I sit down and play 'Fire and Rain' by myself, just to hear it again. But to offer it up... the energy that it somehow summons live takes me right back, and I do get a reconnection to the emotions.
If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed, I agree with you.
Television news is now entertainment, and the stories are being written by the people that have a special interest in them.
If I were to try to identify a turning point I'd say that was it - getting clean.
If you're an addict, it controls your life and your life becomes uncontrollable. It's boring and painful, filling your system with something that makes you stare at your shoes for six hours.
