That is a goal, to step out on stage and to actually be present. Honestly alive and present. Although, it doesn't always happen. We're fallible, we're imperfect. That's what a lot of books are written about; that's what a lot of religions have sought after is that kind of zen mentality of just being totally neutral and open and vulnerable to all of the forces in the universe without being attached to them.

If you make everything really on the nose so everyone knows exactly what you're talking about, it's often not as strong.

I think it's important to accept all the ways that we're absurdly lucky. I'm a white male from a safe city in a wealthy country.

It's not supposed to make you distracted from your life, it's supposed to make you challenge the ongoing distraction with focused intention. Simply discussing how asleep we can be gives credence to the possibility of finding moments of true honest alertness.

There's going to be ups and downs and that you have to be okay with the downs too and embrace them just as much because they will teach you something.

In the war between the humans and the robots, the humans had to win. Call me hopeful.

The most rewarding possible thing that a songwriter or an artist of any kind can experience is to hear firsthand from the mouth of somebody else that they don't know the weight or gravity or intensity that something they've made has brought out in somebody else's life. It's simultaneously flattering and humbling. It makes me so thankful that I've been so lucky to be able to do this work.