An old bandit adage: A bell is a cup until it is struck.

I pretty much draw the line when people want you to do original music for commercials.

When I first started writing these kind of songs that would eventually become Decemberists songs, I was writing them because I knew that nobody was listening at the time and that it wouldn't hurt to challenge myself and get weirder and see if I could alienate more people

There's some things there that you just have to draw the line. Some people are just not going to like it. We would hope that everybody would like it.

It was a nice relief to be able to work on individual songs.

My mother was a Chinese trapeze artist in pre-war Paris Smuggling bombs for the underground. And she met my father at a fete in Aix-en-Provence; He was disguised as a Russian cadet in the employ of the Axis.

One thing about hanging out with a baby is that you can remember a little bit better what it was like to be a kid, and all the mystery that came along with it.