I've got so much material; like, it feels as if every day I'm coming up with so many riffs.

Without Metallica, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing. I have every Metallica record, of course, and I would spend hours on drums in my parents' basement with the stereo behind me, cranking those records and learning Lars' drum beats, beat by beat.

I think that no matter how old you get, you are always learning about yourself.

The music has always been the first and foremost element in our career.

Fear of death has never played a large part in my consciousness - perhaps unimaginative of me.

Death is important for a couple reasons. The first is that death creates scarcity in our life, which therefore gives our decisions meaning and value. From a practical point of view, it therefore makes sense that we keep our own deaths in mind when deciding how to use our time.

I first read the 'Raj Quartet' in the early 1970s, when Paul Scott's decision to set his novels in the dying days of the British Raj in India seemed an eccentric choice, almost as though he did not want readers. The British were tired of their imperial past.

They say seven stages of grief. I think it's more like 77.