There's always a part of my brain saying: 'Stop getting comfortable. Don't relax.' Because I find it difficult to write when I'm happy. I have to go out there and get battered up and bruised to write anything. I have to feel something.

I don't really like over-explaining the songs. Everyone constantly asks what the songs are about, and I think the thing is that the songs definitely all have stories in them it's just nice to let people decide what they are. I think it's important that people hear it themselves rather than having me annotate it.

I love the band Haim. I would love to do something with them.

Songs are about just being totally honest and putting those words to music.

I think music moves me more than other people. I can hear a song and it can bring me to tears. It doesn't happen the whole time, but I find songwriting - songs - very, very moving. I always have and I don't think it's fading.

You don't have to be as good a writer to write a song it's a very different process to writing straight prose. To learn how to write prose takes a lot of years of practice.

I'm so used to it, I think I'd feel very naked on stage without a piano.

The sound is very much always in my head, I have to get the sound out of my head onto the recording.

What ever your doing right now, whatever your thinking, or worrying about. stop. take a huge breathe in, and just enjoy being alive.

I think particularly in music, popularity os a very fickle thing. You're only as good as your last song.

I think music is better listened to with other people. Music is better shared. It depends what situation you're in - if it's a song by Tom Waits, it can be nice to be on your own, but if it's something slightly more upbeat, it's amazing to be around people.

I really want to come back! I definitely want to come back. Some of my fondest memories are in New Zealand.

I've never really not played the piano. I've played it since I was six or seven and it's something I've always done - I don't think I could ever really play anything else, I would be a bit out of it without a piano.

If people stop being interested it's because you haven't written a good enough album. Music will always be the most powerful thing. It doesn't matter what record labels or journalists say. It's the song.

Throughout my entire life, I constantly tried to fight normality. I hate it. I hate the idea of it. I hate routine. I hate anything that feels remotely regular or right.