I remember my brother came home with a bass and played a blues solo on it. I just went insane for days afterwards learning that.

I try as much I can after every live performance to read all the comments my fans post on Facebook and Twitter, as this helps enormously for me to understand straight from fans what worked and what didn't.

I know this sounds weird, but I honestly believe music comes from the universe. Inspiration comes from the universe, and you drag it into your mind.

I have learned that while your putting your record together you can get so caught up in making what you want that you forget what you wanted in the first place.

Trying to force creativity is never good.

I took a couple of creative writing classes with Joyce Carol Oates at Princeton University, and in my senior year there, I took a long fiction workshop with Toni Morrison. I fell in love with it.

After years of doing composition, the risk is always that you might start to repeat and be cliche. Every time, I try find a way to be reborn again as an artist. Its not easy to reinvent yourself every time, as it takes a lot of creative energy, but I am happy to do it.

What I treasure most at any moment is intimacy, surprise, a sense of mystery, wit, depth and love. A handful of cherished friends offer me this, and the occasional singer or film-maker or artist. But my most reliable sources of electricity are Henry David Thoreau, Shakespeare, Melville and Emily Dickinson.