Raymond Chandler managed to write about L.A. his whole career. Should I keep going writing about New York? Is that what I should be doing? Songwriting doesn't work that way.

Raymond Chandler managed to write about L.A. his whole career. Should I keep going writing about New York? Is that what I should be doing? Songwriting doesn't work that way.

I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.

I was a product of Andy Warhol's Factory. All I did was sit there and observe these incredibly talented and creative people who were continually making art, and it was impossible not to be affected by that.

My God is rock'n'roll.

It's depressing when you're still around and your albums are out of print.

I love Ornette Coleman. I love Don Cherry. I love the way those guys play.

One of my rules is: Never listen to your old stuff.

The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?

I am very emotionally affected by sound. Sounds are the inexplicable... There is a sound you hear in your head, it's your nerves, or your blood running.

But I'm also talented and I know when I created something great and Perfect Night is something great, no doubt, no but.

I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.

Perfect Night has that magic and it has the raw energy that grabs you by the throat.

People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.

In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle.

I don't know what goes on in the crowd. I've had them show up and throw beer cans at me. I caused riots in most of the major cities.

You're a musician: You play. That's what you do.

I can concentrate on my art.

I don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album.

I'm in this business for too long to be halfhearted about anything.

I'm too old to do things by half.

I cleaned up my act because otherwise I would have kicked the bucket.

I don't like overdubs, never liked them.

I'm not joking around when I've said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me.