I get nostalgic about having lived in Ames, Iowa, even though being a vegetarian in Iowa is not fun.

While writing is a mystical process, it's also work. If you show up to work five days in a row, nobody's going to pat you on the back - everyone does that. Well, do that with your writing. Just show up. Be there for it. When you get an idea, write it down somewhere and then be a steward of that idea.

You can get into anything if you are determined. I always thought that with music, too.

Take dance music: I like enough of it and its history to be able to say a word or two about this or that record, but I'm nobody's authority.

There are so many ways to respond to music besides feeling like someone's communicating with you. It gives me a charge.

You should avoid seeing too much of yourself anywhere: in the outside world, in others, in the imagined worlds that give you shelter.

It usually happens that I have multiple different projects going on at once, and one can be referencing the other.