At the end, we’re kind of observers – creative people, I mean. I feel like an observer, and I’m pretty much able to step out of things and see how things are playing out.
Certainly being proficient in an instrument does have its problems. Because the better you get, the more you just start sounding like an ordinary guitarist. There are certainly guitarists that transcend that and do really find their sound and all that sort of stuff.
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.
I became a script writer with absolutely no idea of how to write a script whatsoever. I still feel a bit of an outsider in that regard. If I can maintain that approach to screenwriting, it can continue to be enjoyable.
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.
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.
I know when I sit with my band members and we’re playing back a song that we’ve done, I know that they’re experiencing it in a completely different way and hearing stuff that they’re alerted to because the way the interpret the world is through their ears. Mine is through my eyes.
I get criticized for a lot of what I write about, but as far as I’m concerned I’m actually standing up and having a look at what goes on in the minds of men, and I have the authority to talk about it because I’m a man.
Being a parent can make you a horrible person at times, because you’re pushed to the limit constantly.
As Australians, we see the law as inherently bad. We have a real inherent distaste for authority in our makeup.
A rock musician’s career is short-lived. To extend it, you need to do other things to keep yourself fresh.
There’s always pain around. That’s one thing you can guarantee in life – there will always be a surplus of pain.
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.
If you look around, complacency is the great disease of your autumn years, and I work hard to prevent that.
A gentleman never talks about his tailor.
I’m not religious, and I’m not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god.
In getting older, I find myself becoming progressively more ineffectual in a lot of different ways, and part of that is down to no longer having the youthful feeling that what you’re doing has any true impact.
The blues is instilled in every musical cell that floats around your body.
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.
Film seems to be a medium designed for betrayal and violence.