I've written songs for Shirley Bassey, Marianne Faithfull, and Linda Thompson. I sort of focus on these wonderful, aging divas. But maybe that's because I think I'm Christina Aguilera.

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.

I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.

Places that have experienced great defeat experience a kind of rebirth, which I think America has to do - unless we want to get more decrepit. I don't think we have to destroy the place totally.

I'm definitely a fan of juxtaposition. Using the most beautiful line to say the most horrific thing - I think one of the main things in songwriting is definitely friction between the words and the melody.

I like to sing to Verdi, I like singing to Sibelius, and Mahler maybe.