“I write music to celebrate life. I think most artists do, no matter how they themselves describe it. It's the joy of creating. It's a way of life.”

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. … I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin.”

“I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. But now I think the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world.”

“Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.”

“I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.”

“I think that fashion and music go hand-in-hand, and they always should. It's the artist's job to create imagery that matches the music… I think they're very intertwined.”

“don’t write out of what I know; I write out of what I wonder. I think most artists create art in order to explore, not to give the answers. Poetry and art are not about answers to me; they are about questions.”

“No matter how much the joy, your life should be filled with yearning”

“The mystical life is at the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write.”

“To be alive is to feel the joy of being./ In spite of the sorrows and joys of life/ The primary joy is that of being./ That of my existence. / That I exist is the most fundamental experience is joy for me!/ I, who do not deserve to, really exist./ I, who need not, do exist!/ I, who may not, do exist.”