Nick Cave schrijft in The Sick Bag Song het volgende.

The river is a pulsating, living artery.
It has nine known qualities.

It is not ashamed of its actions.
It flows without resistance.
It washes its own history away.
It has no memory.
It is eternally of the present and in the present.
It is not dependent on the whims of the muse.
It needs no angels to transport it.
It is not petrified, haunted or derelict.
It is not fumigated.