Anything that is within you is a gift. To be able to take possession of that and say, "Whatever it is, I am bigger than it," is to learn to cherish even the hard and painful things.

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

I don't understand being idle; I don't have an idle setting. I probably should develop one.

There are only two stories: either you go forward or you die.

What's funny is that people think, "Well there has to be something more than wrestling, because wrestling has such an absurd quality to it." But if you tell a love story, people don't ask what else is in there. They say, "Oh, it's just a love story." All stories have many levels, but these ones show their hand and say, "You might want to look a little deeper."

People want you to play the songs they know. I try not to reflect too much, and I don't really like to focus too much on myself.

You always feel like your 18-year-old self in some sense. And that's what walking through New York on a June evening feels like - you feel like it's Friday and you're 17 years old.