While you're setting something up that's educational for yourself, you have an opportunity to teach others at the same time.

My first album didn't come out until I was 27, which in pop years is late, you know. But when it came time to arrange it, I became a kid in a toy shop. I had a harp and a saxophone quartet and a symphony orchestra. I went berserk for a time.

I'm not interested in politics. I lose interest the microsecond it ceases to be emotional, when something becomes a political movement. What I'm interested in is emotions.

Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I get so much grounding from Iceland because I know it's always going to be there. I have a very happy, healthy relationship with the country, so it's really easy to go everywhere because I always have Iceland to go back to.

Most Icelandic people are really proud to be from there, and we don't have embarrassments like World War II where we were cruel to other people. We don't even have an army. So it's sort of like an all-around good, innocent place.

It would be flattering to be thought of as someone who celebrated life.

We didn't really have television when I was a kid. Around 30, I discovered films and started systematically catching up. I collect interesting documentaries and films, and watch a few nights a week.

I find most children quite inspiring.

I'm just like anybody. I have my ups and downs.

I get highs, to be totally honest, in second-hand shops. My hunting instinct, I expect, really kicks in.

I mostly write on my own, walking, outside.

When I was 20, political music was the uncoolest thing on earth.

In '96, I was in a very specific place with my own music - I was only listening to beats. You would come to my house, and I would just play beats all day.

I bought a laptop in 1999, and it was quite liberating, because I could make a lot of my own decisions.

Believe it or not, I'm a bit clumsy with technology. It's probably why I'm so excited about the touchscreen - even an idiot can use it!

The reason I do photographs is to help people understand my music, so it's very important that I am the same, emotionally, in the photographs as in the music. Most people's eyes are much better developed than their ears. If they see a certain emotion in the photograph, then they'll understand the music.

What probably confuses people is they know a lot about me, but it quite pleases me that there's more they don't know.

I guess I'm quite used to not being understood rather than being understood.

When I met Apple, I made it very clear that I am an old punk and I have never done commercials or been sponsored. And I wasn't after their money.

I don't expect people to get me. That would be quite arrogant. I think there are a lot of people out there in the world that nobody gets.

I think every year brings unknowns that you have to deal with and handle, confront and embrace.

Sometimes, when I have a lot of ideas and I want to do a lot of things, or when I'm traveling, I lose energy and I can't do as many things as I want. So I have to plan days when I'm not doing anything. I find that a bit boring, but it's necessary.

As a singer-songwriter, what I do is write about how the human feels.

Being a musician is very easy. My house is full of musical instruments. There's a lot of music, always.