I think life is a wondrous thing. I'm happy to try pretty hard.

I put a lot into my records, and I won't release anything I'm not totally thrilled with.

There's songs that could either be taken as a conversation between two people, like "The Privateers," or "Why," from a much earlier record. Or "Glass Figurine." That's my version of a relationship song.

What you see at the Field Museum is only like, 10 percent of the collection. It's birds of paradise and passenger pigeons and in all these drawers that pull out, these specimens come out and it's spectacular. And it worked out.

I really believe there's more honesty in one live show than there may be in my whole output.

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

The weirdest time is when I'm having to explain myself all day to journalists, and then I don't perform, so there's no release, just a lot of self-consciousness. Then what do you do with that at the end of the day? How do you release your brain from talking about yourself all day?