Popular music is all about traveling at the speed of you and elevating the individual as the highest thing in the world.

Love's an excuse to get hurt.

When people have real faith in something, it's fascinating to me. And the fact that so many people, in surveys, so many people say they do. It kind of blows my mind.

The sound of loneliness makes me happier.

Hip-hop music has done a very good job of maintaining the political context, where they stand and not giving a sh-t what people think.

To outsiders it probably seems like splitting hairs, but to me, Bright Eyes is a simply the collaboration between myself and Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott. What you hear is definitely the sum of all our ideas and represents all three of us. But I still write the songs myself.

And your eyes must do some raining if you're ever gonna grow / When crying don't help, you can't compose yourself / It's best to compose a poem, an honest verse of longing / Or a simple song of hope.