Nick Cave has been answering fan questions regularly on his Red Hand Files website, through which he's covered topics including overcoming heroin addiction and fear, and paid tribute to Conway Savage and his son. For the most recent edition, Nick explains how he handles receiving negative energy in the form of mean or vile messages, in an answer to Pat of Chicago, IL.

He begins with a quote from W.H. Auden, "We must love one another or die," then discusses how, for the most part, the messages he receives (at least through Red Hand Files) are generally positive, though he does encounter the occasional "odd unkind message." He writes, "I like them and find them weirdly energising. There is nothing quite like a good death threat in the morning to get the juices flowing. They are a form of validation, really, as no one with a public platform and an opinion is doing his or her job effectively if they are not being attacked from time to time."

Nick continues, saying he isn't sure he agrees that, as the question reads, we're living in a "time of cynicism and cruelty":

I think we are living through a frightening and deeply uncertain time, and though there are dementing and cynical voices out there, which are being emboldened and amplified by social media — that loony engine of outrage — they do not represent the voices of the many, or the good. My experience of actual people in this time is overwhelmingly positive — there is a great deal of love and mutual regard and community. I think most of us understand that in order to rise above this particular moment we must pull together, and act with civility, generosity and kindness. We have a monumental task ahead of us that will require vast reserves of energy — we must rehabilitate the world — and this fellow feeling and mutual respect is essential to the process.

Nick goes on to emphasize the importance of coming together, "not just in good faith and consolation, but also in a spirit of creativity and invention." You can read his full answer, endorsing the importance of community and rejecting negativity, on the Red Hand Files.

Meanwhile, Nick's solo piano concert, Idiot Prayer, begins screening in theaters worldwide on November 5. Watch the latest clip from it, of a new song, "Euthanasia," below.