I want to write songs that are so sad, the kind of sad where you take someone's little finger and break it in three places.

I'm unable to really write the kind of song that doesn't have a visual element, which most songs don't.

If you took love out of the equation, I wouldn't know what else to write about.

The way I take in the world is by seeing it; that is very much evident in the songs that I write.

I have things that I'm interested in, and I'm not really interested in writing about anything that I'm not interested in. But it's important to me to be able to see it from a different perspective, and add something new to the whole picture.

I write hate lyrics really well. It's not every day you can use them, really.

You write a scene, and it works or it doesn't. It's immediate.

The more settled I've become, the more problematic my characters have become. There was a period when I wrote sensitive and gentle songs and these came at a time when life was at its most destructive. I think you write about what you need, on some level.

The writer who refuses to explore the darker regions of the heart will never be able to write convincingly about the wonder, the magic and the joy of love for just as goodness cannot be trusted unless it has breathed the same air as evil.