To leverage those things that are common to everybody, and to present them in a way that's sort of naked, is more courageous in art than constantly trying to be evasively too cool.

You don't have to forego education to do anything. Even if you want to go to the NBA, you should read.

I want to have freedom of thought and expression - not get beaten down into some corporate existence, where there's so much risk of embracing the truth that you feel like you can't do it.

I want the ethic of being independent and open-minded, having a lot of integrity, intellectually, to be part of anything I do.

I'm not the guy whose gonna shoot 10,000 free-throws until I'm Michael Jordan - and it did happen kind of accidentally that I said, "Okay, yeah, I'll try singing."

I've always felt that singing is half technical, half taxing. You've got words, a melody, and an instrument, and you have to do justice to the words. You're just a medium for people to feel the song.

The more I make stuff, the more I become aware of when I feel like I'm making bullshit or feel like I'm making something I can stand behind.