I try not to "perform." I try to come on stage and be myself, to sing the way I would in a room by myself, to interact with the audience the way I would relate to them if we were in my kitchen drinking tea and making up silly songs. Maybe the way to get past the fear of being ourselves is simply to try it more often.

Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion — you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That’s how life is.

Well, I started conducting kind of by accident. I wanted to give myself a special birthday present for my fortieth birthday, and I was living in San Francisco at the time and I started attending some of the concerts and then simply dropping hints.

If I can bring joy into the world, then I'll be successful.

In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Don't worry. Be happy.

Improvisation is the courage to move from one note to the next.

It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.