Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values some of the same techniques.
What influenced me was Tori Amos who was unapologetic about expressing anger through music and Sinead O'Connor. Those two in particular were really moving for me and very inspiring before I wrote 'Jagged Little Pill.'
I mean just because you're a musician doesn't mean all your ideas are about music. So every once in a while I get an idea about plumbing I get an idea about city government and they come the way they come.