I was thinking that people have to believe you're crazy in order to take you seriously as an artist.

If you're wandering the streets, talking in gibberish, nobody ever asks you to change anything about your art because there's no context for people to look at what you do.

I started out really making music in my dorm room, and it wasnt really producing or anything like that; it was you making something.

Going back and forth between wanting to be respected artistically and wanting to move people is its own challenge.

Broken Bells reminds me how much fun I have making music.

All I do is listen to music. It's a weird thing. It's like I have so much catching up to do. I've always been over my head. That's just the way I work best, you know. Like when you're studying for school you think, "I can only study when I have to study the night before." That kind of means you're lazy or you're a procrastinator, but for me with music it's a similar thing. It's like I've been over my head for most of my career so to speak.

In the end, I think musicians know that getting up in the morning and making music you love doesn't necessarily mean that you deserve billions of dollars or worship from anybody.