The idea that things used to be better is fantasy. It's putting a halo on something that no one can disprove.

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.

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

I think articulating things through song is a good way of letting people know that they're not alone.

With all of the people in the world and all of the suffering and all of the things that people are forced to do for lack of other alternative, the fact that I had a subsidized education and got to go right into a life of playing music for a living, what a stupidly fortunate place to be.

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.

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.