Most scientists will get serious media exposure about twice in their entire career. And they'll get that because they've actually done an experiment that was interesting.
Even in independent music, people push towards radio. It is very political.
I thought if I gave people all of my journey in one go, it could be overwhelming and easily forgotten, and I didn't want to make an album where the single was so popular that you overlook the whole record. So three parts felt right - it's a number that can't be divided into.
I like to make people dream and think and imagine and learn and study. Nowadays, music is so literal - it's telling you, "This is how it is," and my music's the opposite. I come from an era where lyrics were full of imagery and metaphor, and that's all I know.
I'm not going to say I'll never rock with a band, because I'm too much of a fan of the aesthetic of a great band. But a girl group? Not again.
I had to appreciate other things about music, like the writing and the cadence and dealing with producers. I became a student. I wanted to learn the actual idea of what this industry was before I could creatively speak a lot of the things that I wanted to speak.
I'm just being the artist that I would have loved if I was a child.
That's the whole burden of this novel - the loss of those illusions that give such color to the world that you don't care whether things are true or false as long as they partake of the magical glory.
I agree completely with Secretary Colin Powell, who said today this is an absurdity. And so I think the American people will know it's an absurdity. I have absolutely no concerns about it whatsoever.
On one occasion I went to Afghanistan to look at the borders and learn something about the situation there to see if my book was there?and it wasnt.
People want me to do the strangest things. They want me to sign their arms or chests.