I do love the Nat King Cole stuff, the classic Christmas records. There's something about putting those records on and hearing his voice at Christmastime that brings back a lot of great memories of growing up.

I was attracted to black music for the same reason that I loved those old Irish ballads. Both were social statements of sorts, and both were indigenous to their respective cultures: Ireland, where my father had grown up, and towns like St. Louis along the Mississippi River, where I was growing up.

I played so many clubs growing up, and back in that period, in the '60s, we'd play, like, four, five sets a night.

Throughout my career, there has always been an element of surprise. Sometimes there are moments of disappointment; sometimes there are moments of surprising success.

A just laicism allows religious freedom. The state does not impose religion but rather gives space to religions with a responsibility toward civil society, and therefore it allows these religions to be factors in building up society.

Men and women motivated by faith have every right and obligation to bring their belief and commitment to the public debate. However, that is very different from the governmental establishment of religion that our founders warned against and our constitution prohibits.

There's always a ying-yang in life. With everybody. There's evil in all of us. It's just about how you balance out the evil and the good and having faith in yourself and how you carry yourself.

And poets, in my view, and I think the view of most people, do speak God's language - it's better, it's finer, it's language on a higher plane than ordinary people speak in their daily lives.