I suppose when you do it correctly, a good introduction and a good outro makes the song feel like it's coming out of something and then evolving into something.

When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other was my guitar.

For me, I was somebody who was a smart young guy who didn't do very well in school. The basic system of education, I didn't fit in; my intelligence was elsewhere.

There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism.

I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.

Women exist in my imagination. So they are necessarily a type of abstraction. Many women criticise me for this vision, but I explain to them it's to be expected, because I am a man.

A creative writing program is only as good as its teachers, and I was fortunate in having two great writers as mentors.

Even if I could, I wouldn't want to undo the transformation of jazz into a sophisticated art music.