Somebody else is satisfied by five Bentleys. I'm satisfied by a beautiful string arrangement.

There's a perception that if an artist produces another artist, they're going to imprint on them. But I'm the opposite.

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.

Every band I knew or played with had flyers and properly-recorded demos and contacts; I couldn't even get a gig.

I never had any expectations of winning a Grammy. It wasn't something I was set on, that I was hoping and praying and starving for.

Maybe certain aspects of what I was doing were reacting against what was happening or what people said, too. That's something that happens when you're starting out. After some time goes by and you get a little perspective, you realize that you don't need to react. You can just carry on with what you're doing. That took me a long time figure out; I've only gotten to that point in the last five or 10 years.

There's a perception that if an artist produces another artist, they're going to imprint on them. But I'm the opposite. I want to hear that artist; I don't want to hear me - that's the last thing I want to hear. There are a lot of technical studio things I've learned or figured out, and I feel like I could use those things to help other people with what they're doing.