art was a religious-like calling

There was a very high value placed on the arts in my family. None of them were artists, but they loved books and movies and music. I grew up with people who believed that at its best art was a religious-like calling. I mean, my stepfather thought Bob Dylan was the greatest religious figure of the 20th century – and in a way he’s right, you know. They were also people who didn’t define success in financial terms and I think that’s had a very big influence on me.

telegraph - interview with john preston - june 2010

i prefer to learn everything through music

"I don't have any allegiance to an organized religion; I have an allegiance to the gifts that I find for myself in those religions... I'd rather be non-denominational, except for music. I prefer to learn everything through music. If you want divinity, the music in every human being and their love for music is pretty much it. It's the big indication of their spirituality and their ability to love and make love, or feel pain or joy, and really manifest it, really be real. But I don't believe in a big guy with a beard on a throne, telling us that we're bad; I certainly don't believe in original sin. I believe in the opposite of that: you have an Eden immediately from the time you are born, but as you are conditioned by your caretakers and your surroundings, you may lose that original thing. Your task is to get back to it, to claim responsibility for your own perfection."

aflame all the time

I remember that sensation ... really special things that have no words to them. I hang on to them, because...so much of the rest of this existence is so fucking obvious, so easy to repeat, so easy to get bored of. But there's this other rhythm that's happening all the time; it's much more vibrant, but it's just harder to share. I imagine that it's in the deepest depths of that rhythm that the Sufis live. They're completely    aflame all the time.

http://www.jeffbuckley.com/rfuller/buckley/words/interviews/doubletake.html