I'm glad we're not splattered all over MTV, because I don't think that's entirely the right way to go about building a career. Look at Green Day - they were built up - and then came crashing down. The overexposure is just too much of a burnout for most people.

I saw the Bangles before I was in a band. I really liked their rhythm. That was right when I was trying to learn how to play guitar. I was really frustrated because I couldn't strum, and then I saw Susannah Hoffs do this cool strum on a song, and it was my goal after that to learn how to do that strum.

I like clubs, I like sweat, I like people right up in my space.

Heavy metal is the enemy. Everybody but me keeps going back and forth between metal and punk, but I'm narrow-minded and a purist. I'd never mess with it.

Because of the power of television, I was visible to everybody all over the world. But there are many things in the theater that are more fulfilling and that I look forward to doing more. But really, I love it all: theater, film, television.

Artie is a singer, and I'm a writer and player and a singer. We didn't work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that.

I often wonder when I make a film - I'm thinking of making a film of the Buddha - and I often wonder: If Buddha had all the elements that are given to a director - if he had music, if he had visuals, if he had a video camera - would we get Buddhism better?

I think that as a director, especially when it comes to writing the script, which I also do, and I'm also the first one to visualize this story, I think contributing to the film industry means I'm able to take the best of a story and translate it well into a movie that can be released in theaters.