Humans are social creatures that really crave intimacy.

I think that was going on with bands like The Strokes was that the idea of the band, a real band, was making a comeback. My brother in law is an example- before he was listening to some country music, even some of that awful nu-metal stuff , but there weren't many options really.

I tend to [have] a lot of ideas but then just leave them in that infant form and kind of move on.

There's something artistic about skating. A psychologist could tell you exactly why that is, but I think there's something much more expressive that gives you a lot of room for unique and individual expression. Whatever you're interested in can become something you kind of own in your group of skater friends.

My dad and I get into it all the time. He loves to discuss politics much more than I do and we have pretty heated conversations.

If you're 14 and you're skinny, you can't be on the football team, basically. It's just not even really possible. But skating is something that you can do that gets that athletic urge satisfied, but you get to do it on your own terms. You can be as ballsy as you want to be. It was perfect for me.

One thing that I've struggled with has been a certain amount of animosity toward the whole human race.