I want to build an audience that's willing to follow us in whichever direction we might choose.

I'm tired of watching attractive people trying to be ugly, struggling for authenticity. Why not be yourself?

People say 'I don't want to die alone!' But you know what, honestly? I don't want to die with a bunch of people looking at me.

I want to satisfy the listener, exactly. I want to entertain the audience. I want the people to leave the show with the feeling I used to leave shows with when I was young, and I couldn't get over it for another three or four days after it. I just kept reliving the set in my mind.

I feel very strongly about the subject matter in The Dallas Buyer's Club - about AIDS and people fighting illnesses, and fighting for survival against bad conditions.

You're always as a musician trying to shock yourself or create music that's maybe even too weird for your own taste.

I read a lot - surveys of vernacular music. A lot of it is the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music, which I've loved since I was in high school. They had it at the library and I always thought that was interesting, even when I was into punk and stuff. Just the history of storytelling and the amount of melancholy a lot of old music has.