“One of the most common failings [when writing a drum track] is repetition. Nobody wants to hear that same stupid 16-line bass-snare pattern throughout the WHOLE song. Didn't your mother ever teach you that variety is the spice of life?”

“I was playing drums, and I had broken my wrist very bad playing football, and the bass player in the band… he wanted to split. So I just went to the bass; I went from Drums over to Bass. That was it. I was playing the bass within a week.”

“…I realized that once people are broken in certain ways they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see the people in your life break one by one.”

“You shouldn't hear the guitar by itself. It should be part of the drums so it sounds like the drummer is playing chords -- like the snare is in A or the hi-hat in D minor. You only notice the guitar when it's not there.”

“Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.”

“As a sleuth you are poor. You couldn’t detect a bass-drum in a telephone-booth.”

“Nothing beats 2 guitars, drum and bass.”

“I wanted to write about the moment when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you. When your whole life breaks down. That's the moment when you have to somehow choose what your life is going to be about.”

“There are so many lines of that song ( Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan ) where you think. That is a painting.”

“I write the songs first and in most cases teach myself the technique second.”