Songs you can dip in and out of, but a book... well, it can overpower you.
When I'm singing 'Deanna,' for example, which I sing pretty much every night, it brings forward a kind of imagined, romanticized lie about this particular person, which I find really comforting and exciting to sing about.
I love being manipulated by what I see. I love weepies and romantic comedies where you're reaching for the Kleenex at the right moment.
I love performing. I can get to be that person I always wanted to be - godlike.
What you're really after when you see a film or listen to a song is a singular vision, and I'm not sure how much of that you really get in Hollywood.
I see it as my duty in some way is to be out in the world as an Australian putting forward what I consider to be authentic Australian music.
Accessible local libraries are vital to communities and to children.
As Australians, we see the law as inherently bad. We have a real inherent distaste for authority in our makeup.
Despite what people might think, I'm not interested in being dark all the time. I'm actually searching for some kind of light, and I'm always very happy when I can achieve that.
The big problem with songwriting for me is starting a new song. It's the thing where all the anguish exists, not in the writing of the song, but the starting of the new song. What do I write about? I never know.
To me, I don't write when I'm depressed. If I'm depressed, which is actually rare, I'm not doing anything, you know, and I'm not able to do anything.
My father was a teacher and my mother also worked in the school, so the family has a background in education.
The songs that I like are the ones that you can't visualize, that are just cries from the heart - those very straight, direct songs that make rock & roll music so wonderful.
I don't feel I'm thrown around by the winds of taste and fashion.
When I perform onstage, I'm actually kind of nearsighted, so I don't have any real, true understanding of what the audience is like.
I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange.
I write a lot, and very often I write a couple of lines that are particularly revealing in some kind of way. And then as a few more lines get added and a piece gets added, eventually the song pretty much takes over and you can't really find a way to change those things.
It's possible to get through life without a religious structure, but I don't think that's a very fruitful way to live.
I always thought my records were number one; it's just the charts didn't think so.
I'm a believer. I don't go to church. I don't belong to any particular religion, but I do believe in God. I couldn't write what I write about and be creative without a certain form of belief.
A gentleman never talks about his tailor.
There's always pain around. That's one thing you can guarantee in life - there will always be a surplus of pain.
I just want to leave this world with a massive catalog of songs.
At some point you start seeing the difference between what you really want, and what is your priority order. I feel that today I know what I want. That's the problem with perspective, as well as focus and concentration.
My records are basically a litany of complaints against the world, and I'm quite like that in real life as well.
The idea of songwriting is a transformative thing, and what I do with songwriting is take situations that are quite ordinary and transform them in some way. Apart from things like the murder ballads, the songs I write, at their core, are quite ordinary human concerns, but the process of writing about them transforms them into something else.
I don't know, maybe Australian humour isn't supposed to be funny. It's as dry as the Sahara, and I think people miss that.
After a while, you just don't do things you don't wanna do - that's the great freedom you get, the older you get. You learn what to do and what not to do, and what will be a waste of time and what won't be a waste of time.
Most people wait for the muse to turn up. That's terribly unreliable. I have to sit down and pursue the muse by attempting to work.
Kylie Minogue is the greatest thing that has happened to Australian music.
When you're on your own, you have all the self-censorship that everybody has when they try and write. All the little voices that say, 'No, you can't write that, what will they think of that?'
The rock star is dying. And it's a small tragedy. Rock stars have blogs now. I have no use for that kind of rock star.
'Inspiration' is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything.
Texting is apocalyptic on some level. It's a reduction of things.
An artist's duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany.
The work ethic at art school is completely different than the work ethic amongst people who get into music. People who paint, it's an honorable thing to spend all day and all night in front of your canvas - that is the romantic vision of the painter.
I'm a big fan of teatowels and am always on the lookout for a good one.
I used to believe that if I could do certain things - write a book or be a successful musician - that I'd be transformed into a happy person, but it doesn't work that way.
People are always surprised to see clues to my being a normal kind of guy. As if I'm somehow letting the team down.
I'm a kind of hard-wired pessimist. I can't help but see the world in a certain kind of way.
I consider myself to be first and foremost a comic writer. The way I entertain myself - especially in those long and grim hours in the office - is to write stuff I find funny.
Being a parent can make you a horrible person at times, because you're pushed to the limit constantly.
Guns are part of the American psyche, aren't they? This is collateral damage for having a Wild West mentality. It's intrinsic to the American psyche. It's never going to change.
Most screen violence is tedious.
Musicians are at the bottom of the creative pyramid and authors are at the top, and many people think it's unacceptable for someone to attempt to jump from the bottom to the top of the pyramid.
I've spent my life butting my head against other people's lack of imagination.
One of my big fears is drying up, and the more I create, the more I feel myself shrinking beneath the backlog of work I've done.
I've watched 'Oprah Winfrey.' And I'm proud. I don't care what anybody says! I don't know whether I've watched it. I've been in the room while it's been on.
I lost my innocence with Johnny Cash. I used to watch the 'Johnny Cash Show' on television in Wangaratta when I was about 9 or 10 years old. At that stage I had really no idea about rock n' roll. I watched him, and from that point I saw that music could be an evil thing - a beautiful, evil thing.
