Our imagination it is our greatest ally . . . Imagination is a very, very powerful thing. It literally invents the path before you.

I've always felt that if I ever got cynical, I would have to stop making music because I'd just be poisoning the air.

I absolutely adore the alchemy of a bit of an idea.

If you stand still in any city long enough, you see everyone pass you by. So you're in Chicago. If you stand on the corner of Belmont and Clark, and you do that for three years, you'll pretty much have seen everybody in Chicago pass that junction.

My dad was quiet, angry, shut down. So my thing is: I express everything that's there. I want to get it all out.

A song is like a saddle: you ride it for a while, and if it's the right kind of song you can sing it for the rest of your life.

I guess in a way I just feel blessed to be able to make music.