Nick Cave

Language is way more than just a way of putting across an idea. In a way the language itself is possibly more important than the idea. Or there are only a certain number of ideas, but they can be said in a variety of different ways; it’s how you say them that’s more important than what you’re saying.

I always wear a suit, Warren always wears a suit. Jim, he does. I always wanted to wear a suit as far back as I can remember, before anything; I used to look at the blues guys in their suits and think they looked really cool.

I don’t feel I wear a suit in a dandyish way. I wear it as a worker. Someone who prepares themselves for the job, you know. It’s always been like that. A certain amount of preparation needs to be done to get yourself ready to come down here and do it. It’s what I do. There’s no debate that goes on in my head.

Well everyone knows the myth of Orpheus and his lyre, don’t they? You didn’t? That’s intriguing. You need to sue your school. I’m worried about you. It’s a story that is from before the Rolling Stones.

I’ve got the word ‘Frappucino’ on the last album. [laughs] ‘I woke up this morning with a Frappucino in my hand.’

When they were twelve, Nick and Eddie started the Triple A club (Anti Alcoholics Anonymous); they would get local taxi drivers to buy them drinks then hole up in a garage somewhere, get drunk and throw up.

If he were to lease his music out for commercial gain, he says, his muse would desert him.

His people keep telling me what a great time it is to interview him. Why? He’s so happy. He’s so open. He’s so well. He’s in love.

He is wearing a skimpy V-neck sweater and with his eyes closed and his face pointed skywards, he could be a twelve-year-old boy. Since he is, in fact, forty-one, in the looks department at least, he is a disgracefully good advertisement for bad living.

Being in his company is rather like watching Paris, Texas. Kind of a random experience. But interesting.