I'd read 'Paradise Lost' as an undergrad at university but remembered little about it. No, not true: I remembered few details, but carried with me with the persuasive arguments and pitiable dilemma of its arguable protagonist, Satan.
I've been to those places where it's 'poor, pitiful me.'
For me, half the joy of achieving has been the struggle and the fight, the pitting myself against the world and all its competition - and winning.
There was a show at the Mayan in Los Angeles where I got overly enthusiastic and jumped into the crowd, and I know they weren't thrilled about that. When I got offstage the manager told me not to do that again. I said, 'Really, for my own safety?' And he said, 'No, because the Pixies don't do that.'
Someone recently played me 'Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell' by Das Racist. That should be my theme song.
For me, as a beginning novelist, all other living writers form a control group for whom the world is a placebo.
He who placed me in this seat will keep me here.
Making me into a role model is placing too much importance on what I see as a work in progress.
I think a very clear cut example of - dare I say - plagiarism is the Sam Smith-Tom Petty situation, where you have a song that is flagrantly... it is the hook from one song being used for another song. To me, that was a very obvious example of plagiarism. If somebody had done that to me, I would probably take a similar course of action.
My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings.
'Soul Plane' put me in a position to succeed. I'm glad I had the opportunity to be the lead man.
Death by plane crash scares me. I travel a lot, and when you hit turbulence, and post 9/11, that's in the back of my mind a bit.
I never think of myself as any kind of sex symbol, but I get letters from all over, all sorts. It's really cool. I get a lot from inmates, which is kind of scary. But the best was the guy who wanted to send me a plane ticket to fly me to his prom.
No one on the planet Earth is going to be able to look at me on television and say that I'm a liar. It will not happen.
A singer for me is more like someone who is standing alone with a microphone like Scott Walker, rather than someone who is bashing a plank and is spitting all over a microphone.
I don't think any person has any special knowledge about what God has planned for me and you any more than me and you do.
I'm not a big planner. Things always sort of surprise me.
My job is to give my best, and where my journey would take me is something that I have left to God. I am not much of a planner; I am more of a doer.
As a novelist, I tell stories and people give me money. Then financial planners tell me stories and I give them money.
When I was 12 years old, I went to Natchitoches, La.; it was summer vacation with my family. We visited a plantation, Melrose. And I met an Afro-American woman who was a painter. I already had some idea of what I wanted to do in life, and one of the things that interested me was painting.
