I opened up every can of worms I could. I got to the place where I would peel back one layer, and then another layer, and the stuff that would come up underneath was so inspiring, it made me want to write about it.

Music enables me to cleanse and shed the things that I feel are holding me back from growing, or growing up.

That's the novelist's job: to peel back the layers and look underneath.

What I like to write about is stuff I know. I don't think I could write a novel. I don't think I have it in me to come up with those kinds of characters.

I do not want to be a robot, a cog in society who answers 'yes' because 'yes' is considered the appropriate answer. Neither do I want to be a protestor. I just want to seek out what lies underneath the veils of politeness and programming that I've been given as a person in this society.

Leonard Cohen has a way with words and with humor that remind me to lighten up, which I appreciate very much.