Steven Wilson

“If you live in the city, you only have to look out your window to see enough that would make you feel that you don't want to step outside your front door ever again.”

“I really love the combination of Israel and England. They are completely different. The British are very private and keep things to themselves, while Israelis aren't that way. In England, I couldn't make friends with people in the supermarket or people who work at my bank or post office, but in Israel I can, and I like that.”

“The whole notion of an alternative truth is a paradox. How can you have an alternative to truth?”

“Ever since I was a kid, I've always been interested in the poetry of melancholy, if you like.”

“We are not lonely, because we chose to be alone.We are not lost, because we chose to disappear.”

“My first love is making records, and whatever's necessary in order for me to achieve that, I'll learn how to do it.”

“The real artists are ultimately people who don't consider their audience and are almost incapable of considering their audience. They can do what they do and fire themselves up.”

“It's a cliche that music rises above it all, and it's a cliche for a reason - it's very often true.”

“You forget, living outside of a country, that the actions of the government are not the actions of the people.”

“It's possible that Israel will be my second home, but it won't be my only home.”

“In the mid- to late '70s, there was no one better than ABBA at writing and producing great pop.”

“The city can be the loneliest place of all.”

“I myself lived in London for 20 years, and I never knew my next-door neighbors. I never knew what they did. I never knew their names. They didn't know what I did for a living, and they didn't know my name.”

“I've always been the sort of person who likes to look forward and live in the present.”

“Porcupine Tree is a band, and it's not up to me where the band goes - it's between the manager, our agent, and the band as a whole.”

“It's something I've recognized in the careers of those people who have been inspiring to me over the years - Neil Young, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Prince. These are all people who constantly redefined themselves, and had to deal with the difficulty of trying to take their audience with them when they did that.”

“'Routine' was written on piano, and you can hear that. But then you listen to 'Happy Returns,' and you can tell it's definitely been written on guitar, with that singer-songwriter-y strumming quality.”

“I think there is something about the Internet which gives people almost an opportunity to role play and to create a facade, an image. I see that as quite a dangerous development because I think what we call social networking, Twitter, Facebook, etc., is actually quite antisocial.”

“One thing I have found over years is that if you change direction, the initial reaction tends to be very polarized, but as the music gradually filters through and fans start engaging with it on its own terms rather than comparing it to what went before, the appreciation and acceptance of it increases.”

“Every time I make a new record, some of my existing fans are going to like it, and some are not. It's inevitable, and it's part of the deal. It's part of the job description.”