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I don't fall into the category of tortured artist. But it's not made me more or less anything.

I think being tortured as a virtue is a kind of antiquated sense of what it is to be an artist. It comes out of that Symbolist idea, back to Rimbaud and all that disordering of the senses and all of that being some exalted state. When I've been that way, I've always been less exalted than I would have liked.

I firmly disbelieve that one has to be a tortured soul to write good music.

I used to be on the kitchen floor, crying, wasted and thinking of lyrics. That was the only way I could create - as a tortured artist. I've learned that you can be stable and taking care of yourself and still create beautiful work.

I guess I am ruthless too because that's what makes a great artist. But I also respect people, I don't go around stepping on their heads.

I think that to explore the uncomfortable and the politically incorrect is the job of the artist.

Art is born of humiliation.

But it becomes disrespectful when the artist's process is not respected.