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.

Sold my soul to the devil / for nice penmanship. / Now I write real pretty / but I'm starting to regret it.

I was an English major in university and that got me into novels, but I read a lot of books as a kid.

I don't necessarily think I look to books for ideas, but sometimes when I'm in the process of reading a great book, I just think about it all of the time.

I think books are just a great ticket to get you outside of yourself. You can not be you for a second and live in the shoes of a character, which is a special thing.

I used to be so young, how did I get so old?

When you have a young kid you can't go out much at night, so I spent a lot of time at home, watching movies and cooking dinner with my wife. It felt like what most people experience. White picket fence stuff.So there was some enjoyment of that normalcy, but I have to admit that part of me missed the chaos of touring. I think it's about balance.