Amazingly, I've been sort of an anomaly in the music industry. I feel like I've been able to exist as kind of a throwback artist.

I am most alive when I let myself be touched by the fingers of life.

Writing with privacy is paramount. You must feel free to admit to yourself your deepest, darkest secrets and true feelings.

I want my whole life to be a great work of art, not just my art. And that means paying attention to my entire life and trying to make sure my whole life is balanced.

Being engaged with life. One has to develop a poet's eye for perfect moments, moments that most people pass by.

I was turning 20 during my first record. Those decade birthdays always kind of cause me, it seems, to reflect, look back, and then look forward. I just was closing this period of my life where I was living in a car and scrambling my whole life to then signing a six-record deal with Atlantic.

There is a pretty girl on the face of the magazine and all I see is my dirty hands turning the page.