We all do the wrong thing. And then we have to wake up the next morning and live with the fact that we have done things that are wrong.

If a war has to happen, a war has to happen.

I really lucked out with that song ["As Cool As I Am"]. Men were becoming much more comfortable with all the different facets and parts of their identity, including their gentler, funnier, sillier, nurturing parts. They started showing up. There was so much exploration of gender at that time. Women were showing up with the range of ways of being female in the world and men were showing up with the range of being male in the world.

I just think the reassurance and the steadiness and the hands-on kindness can make a huge difference.

The light that stopped the night felt like forgiveness.

They preach that I should save the world. They pray that I won't do a better job of it.

The rest of the songs on the album [Mortal City ] have spare arrangements on them. Steve [Miller], really loved that. He'd just come off of a project with someone who basically had to mask the fact that there were no songs there with production. He said, "Oh, my God, you have real songs here!"