Randy Newman on...

The current Bush administration: “You can’t look through a book of presidents and find a precedent for it. I mean, [James] Buchanan and those guys—as bad as they were—you can’t find, in my opinion, anything worse. I don’t think there has been.”

The best song he’s ever written: “I would say ‘The World Isn’t Fair.’ Musically, it’s all intro—it never starts. It’s all presentory in a way, like the verses in the ’20s and ’30s. But I think that’s about the best. ‘I’m Dead’ is a very good song. ‘Political Science’ just clicks along pretty well. I thought ‘Great Nations Of Europe’ might be one of my best songs—and maybe it is one of my best songs—but it’s a little too didactic.”

Whether he’s ever had a near-death experience: “Maybe. I was probably too loaded to notice it.”