How intensely did you have to study the Bible in order to synch up the lyrics and song titles on Life of the World to Come, and did your knowledge come from how you were raised or just general curiosity?

I didn't have to work too hard because I know a lot of Bible stuff to begin with. It was about half and half, because some of them I would think of the verse and start from there, and others I would write the song and then I comb the Bible. It doesn't take long to find something that fits one of my songs, generally, because there's a lot of apocalyptic stuff. But not just apocalyptic, but often working in ideas about forgiveness, caring, guilt or shame. Those are things I write about. Or, you know, a person being given permission by his wife to make a baby with somebody else because she can't, that's a common theme. For that story, it's a story about personal sacrifice, and the Bible has got all the stories. It's like The Canterbury Tales in that way. To me, the Bible is a pleasure. If you're into literature, you need a passing familiarity with the Bible or you're probably missing a lot in literature.

Have you ever felt like your songwriting impeded on your emotional health or fed your neuroses?

That's a really good question, and like most good questions, I don't have a satisfying answer for it. Has it impeded my emotional health? It's more in listening to music that I worry about going to unhealthy places, I like to listen to music that messes me up. I have these ideas, and I don't know if it's actually true, that I just indulge feeling bad. In songwriting, it's not as purgative as people think it is for me. The music is the product of purgative work I've done elsewhere in my life, thinking things through, going through experiences, what's left for the song is to wake stuff up. I'm a fairly controlling writer, it's not a primal scream process for me. I'm not bleeding out from my pen. I will say the Black Pear Tree/Satanic Messiah era, that was a hard time to be writing. That, and Life of the World to Come. I do remember getting pretty upset while working.

Did you write "There Will Be No Divorce" specifically to make me cry every time I hear it?

Yes. Yes I did, sir or madam. I'm so glad to hear that! I remember working a little hard on that song. Some songs can be pretty automatic, but I was tinkering with that one.