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Rachmaninov has some kind of weird dark edge to his music which I don't think I've heard with any other kind of music before.

Every time I see a film or TV show, I think about how that composer made those choices and how that director envisioned music and how that could work onstage or in a film and how you could support that even further by putting lyrics to it.

I've realized that I owe people a look behind the scenes of my own story, because I don't think anyone can have a true understanding of the music without an insight into where it came from.

That was my first love growing up - classical orchestral music, especially Impressionism.

Great classic music that I've been turned on to has not only inspired and influenced me, but it has had an effect on my songwriting.

I have that huge print from Pollock by the piano because the influence is reciprocal. He was into hearing music while he created, and I sometimes do the opposite. I'm influenced by everything from an ant to a dream.

I was growing up listening to Queen. Freddie Mercury threw those incredible melodies into his songs.

Stephen Sondheim told me that Oscar Hammerstein believed everything that he wrote. So there's great truth in the songs, and that's what was so wonderful to find.

I was listening to Jimi Hendrix; I just admire his artistry and creativity as an artist.

And when I met Cecil Taylor it was a complete transformation of musical identities. All the tenets that I had grown up with were thrown out the window.