There's when a phrase circles in my head in a number of ways for any number of days, weeks, or months, and then that eventually becomes a song. There's a slow permeation of the idea and then that leads into a bunch of themes and becomes a bunch of lines.

I feel like songwriting changed from something that I liked doing to something that, I feel, is a very important outlet for me to digest all the things around me. Once I put thoughts into a song, I can let it go, it doesn't bug me anymore you know what I mean? It's kind of a catharsis.

You can't just look at the side of something that you want to see. You have to look at the whole round object and understand that there are parts of it that you don't like.

Sometimes I just don't have time to wait for the muse to come, so I've developed things to force the muse to come back.

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

If the point of good art is to be somewhat subtle then it's not going to catch everyone.

I don't believe in the myth of the "self made man". Nobody gets through alone.