Some of your best songs come from a desperate attempt to escape, so sitting in an airport for hours I can just start pulling out little fragments of songs from my head. A lot of times a melody will just occur to me and be my companion for a couple of months.

Playing the violin and singing and whistling are just three different ways of making sound.

People who are thinking about your music almost as much as you are, that almost never happens.

You can build up expectations for a song before you record it, and then it's like nothing's good enough in the studio.

I've done my share of busking, and it's fun until it isn't. There are musicians in the subways that will make you cry, they're so good.

A day off after a show with no agenda in a foreign city is about the most fertile creative situation I can imagine. Just walking with nothing to do, killing time and hearing the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar place.

Most of the songs that I appreciate are lyrically vague.