I'm just lucky because my kids are grown-up - I love them very proud of them and we are in close contact as big-time friends but they don't need me that much now and I can actually enjoy this wonderful world of music.

That was a time when I did love music I couldn't get enough of what was going on. Maybe it was Nirvana that brought me back. I guess it was a comfort because something that sounded so right - and non-commercial - had become so influential so immediately.

Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence and silence is full of music.

I don't think I'd ever make an album of just covers because I love writing my own music.

Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.

It's not just the 'Grammys' that I've pulled out of. I also pulled out of the English awards as well. The reason that I wanted to pull out was because I believe very much that the music industry as a whole is mainly concerned with material success.

Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it's like just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left.

I think older people can appreciate my music because I really show my heart when I sing and it's not corny. I think I can grow as an artist and my fans will grow with me.

Music is a lady that I still love because she gives me the air that I breathe. We need all sorts of nourishment. And music satisfies and nourishes the hunger within ourselves for connection and harmony.

Why do musicians give so much time to charitable causes? The most humanitarian cause that we can give our time to is the creation and performance of music itself.

I came into music just because I wanted the bread. It's true. I looked around and this seemed like the only way I was going to get the kind of bread I wanted.

When I was a teenager I began to settle into school because I'd discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater.

I like having my hair and face done but I'm not going to lose weight because someone tells me to. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy.

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure making the music sound sweeter the wine taste richer the laughter ring louder because they are there.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears however measured or far away.

We are also fortunate in being in quite a sheltered environment in terms of people moving on to do other things because there are relatively few companies in Scotland that are looking for the skill set that we've developed.

But you know if you live an affluent lifestyle there are all types of trappings that are there that you have to be cognizant of and you've got to try and communicate freely and gain understanding about and then keep moving on because you know sometimes lifestyles are chosen for us as opposed to us choosing them.

I had the standard movie geek childhood because for as long as I can remember all I wanted to do was make movies.

Cinema is entertainment and people go to the movies because they want to feel good and forget about everything.

The reason I started writing movies was because I kept getting parts that I just kind of stepped into. I didn't have to do a lot of work and I ended up getting sort of bored.

If you go to Sundance the experience that I've had there as a viewer is... there's like a hundred movies there and you've got to figure out what movies are sold out what can you see. Sometimes you go to see movies that you don't know anything about because it just works into your schedule.

Whenever I think about movies I always look at that art process as having the best of a lot of worlds. Because if you watch a great film you have a musical element to it not just on the scoring but in the way that the shots are edited - that has music and rhythm and time.