My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems seeing a painting listening to some music some opera which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.
Maybe someday you can accuse somebody of being a poseur by selling out and playing blues music but that's just not going to happen in my lifetime.
For whatever reason not all people are born with the particular gift of being able to express ourselves through music. And believe me it is a gift.
There's more good music being made now than ever before.
The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one's furniture.
I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me.
Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song if I choose to not look inside myself to write music I'm really not worth being called an artist at all.
I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces as opposed to what I see it being now which is a way for me to actually communicate and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.
Have you listened to the radio lately? Have you heard the canned frozen and processed product being dished up to the world as American popular music today?
The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.
I feel good about being able to take bluegrass on to television like 'Letterman' and 'The View ' and I've heard nice things about being able to do that. I really haven't felt any negativity toward me or my music.
Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.
But I feel music has a very important role in ritual activity and that being able to join in musical activity along with dancing could have been necessary at a very early stage of human culture.
Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.
Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.
People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around - the music and the ideas.
Music makes me high on stage and that's the truth. It's like being almost addicted to music.
Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions.
If you look deep enough you will see music the heart of nature being everywhere music.
After doing 'Firefly' and moving on I always wanted to be part of a series again. I love doing films too but there's just something special about being part of the team and feeling like you're actually a part of the family and I always look to re-create that.
We are also fortunate in being in quite a sheltered environment in terms of people moving on to do other things because there are relatively few companies in Scotland that are looking for the skill set that we've developed.
I'll go to see movies but I also love being at home on my couch and pausing every 10 minutes to pee.
I like to think of myself as a fairly educated human being but I'm a very uneducated actor when it comes to movies directors producers actors for that matter.
There's always an imbalance with actors and actresses in the industry. And I think because there are just fewer movies overall being made it's that trickle down effect.
The thing people don't understand is that touring or travelling or whatever you do in my position means you go to all these cool places all over the world but you see everything from a car window. You don't get to see much of the city or meet people at all.