Prayer feeds the soul - as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul - and it brings you closer to God.
I like putting a lot of personal touches in the music.
People read into the music. I have a feeling that they can believe that I'm trying to put some emotion forward. It's not just some technical exercise.
So many people I was at school with have all ended up being musicians and putting records out.
When drum'n'bass happened, when the two-stepgarage thing happened, there was a chart smash every week; it operated on the underground and the pinnacle of pop mainstream at the same time.
When I first heard bands like Tortoise, it seemed to come off the back of that world, like let's make a record with three vibraphones and release it on a seven-inch with black-and-white artwork.
Gospel isn't some ditty to make people enjoy their afternoon - it's communicating with God.
I had never liked, even feared a little, this wild reach of marsh and mud flats where everything seemed turned away from the land, looking off desperately toward the horizon as if in mute search for a sign of rescue.
I think that the celebrity memoir as a genre is looked upon as a lesser form. One of my missions as a ghostwriter has been to elevate that form. Maybe that sounds pretentious!
When I was a kid, I loved reading Sherlock Holmes. Now, you don't think of him as a superhero, but he was so damn much smarter than anybody else.
I've got a peculiar weakness for criminals and artists. Neither takes life as it is. Any tragic story has to be in conflict with things as they are.