“I feel I’m an anachronism because I was born early due to a Caesarian section.  My mother had a superstition about numbers, so she wanted me to be born on an even day of an even month. And the surgery was slated for an odd day of an odd month, so she moved it back. Just a couple of days. I think the surgery was slated for May 1st, and she moved it to April 30th. And there was nothing unhealthy about it. The doctor was like, “Yeah, sure.” Got a couple of days here or there, it really doesn’t change anything. But I always thought that was a great poetic excuse for lopsidedness.”Amanda Palmer (11)

“I think it’s my most Smith-sy song to date. I am a huge, huge Smiths fan and Morrissey fan, but I don’t think you can always hear the influence in that song. To me it sounds like a blatant rip-off. It was inspired by this running joke that I had this long string of piano teachers who all came on to me. I did various things in various situations (laughing), but I thought that was a very Morrissey situation to find myself in, and so I should write a very Morrissey-like song. I grew up in an Episcopal church, but I was never an official page turner. The organist never had a page turner. It was a small operation. I’m not even sure where that image came from. The lonesome organist – actually, no! I do remember where it came from! I wrote that song in college, because there was this guy, I think he might still tour, called The Lonesome Organist. He was like a great sort of vaudeville-y one-man band. And his shtick was that he played, like, 12 different instruments, and he had them all in one contraption. So it was like a big, crazy drum set with keyboards and accordion, and things to blow in, and all sorts of stuff. I remember seeing him, because he toured at my college, and the name stuck. And I remember thinking, Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner would be a really hilarious newspaper heading. So it was one of those songs that was written off the title.”Amanda Palmer (11)

“Delilah’s like a human mash-up. I didn’t have an actual friend named Delilah. She just creeped into my consciousness. But she’s as many parts me as she is all of the down-and-out friends I’ve had over the years.”Amanda Palmer (11)