«"(...) I like big, heavy-duty prose stylists. The language is possibly more important than the ideas. Language itself can have a hugely beneficial effect on you in the same way music can – if I play, say Veedon Fleece by Van Morrison, I know I'm going to feel better. It can change my entire body chemistry. It can make me go from feeling exhausted, depleted, unhappy, depressed into feeling fuckin' buoyant and brilliant and joyful in a matter of seconds. It's not intelectual, it's about the music and the rhythm of the words."»
«"For me confessional writing is a dead end," he observes. "There's something about making heroic your little pains that sticks in my craw. But also, if you become that kind of a writer, when nothing's happening in your life you've got nothing to write about. So for me what's happening in your imagination is far more interesting. You can lead a completely banal existence – like Kafka the clerk, or Philip Larkin the librarian, rather than Bukowski the lush who only writes about being a lush. My own Bukowski behaviour wasn't to fuel... I didn't do it and then write about it."»
«"(...) Rock'n'roll is a hugely important art form. It may well be it's the peak of the pyramid, if there is such a thing. It does have a lasting resonance in certain people's lives."»
