In high school, everybody rapped. You just pounded on the table.

I have tried to write songs quickly that get scrapped. I've also taken a long time on songs that get scrapped because you can over-think something, and you've squeezed the life out of it. As opposed to work of art, it looks like a really great work of craftsmanship.

A lot of us don’t get a sense of our personal power. I know the vast difference that one person can make in changing things.

What the media is playing is what people want is really a false idea. Capitalism and people who control the market have a large hand in everything. It doesn't have anything to do with figuring out what the crowd wants to hear. It has to do with the media deciding what they think people want to hear.

People give out compliments because it's polite.

When my daughter was born, that was the first time I cried from happiness.

Sometimes it takes time to get into what ideas actually mean to you. Even when you're not writing a song, it's like that.