In both the art and the business worlds, the difference between the amateurs and the professionals is simple: The professionals know they're winging it. The amateurs pretend they're not.

Art is food for the soul, and an artistic climate is a healthy climate because it breeds empathy.

When I find myself having to share a meal with someone who simply wants to complain about the world, I almost feel myself wanting to crawl out of my skin and just sort of scurry away. But being able to pick up on that stuff and being able to easily identify the people walking towards the light instead of walking towards the darkness, that's a skill I'm very, very glad to see growing in myself.

I get so many ideas for songs, but I'm so seldom disciplined enough to sit down and crank them out.

The impulse to connect the dots - and to share what you've connected - is the urge that makes you an artist

When you're afraid of someone's judgment, you can't connect with them. You're too preoccupied with the task of impressing them.

You tour and you work hard and you take care of your fans and very real things lead to other real things. There's never been some fantastic fluke or break in my career, it has all been very slow and steady.