From a very young age, I was the kind of kid you can just put anywhere and I'd still find stuff to be stoked about.

The South actually has a very strong tradition of activism. The civil rights movement came from down here! It was black activists demanding that their voices be heard. People say these are red states. No they're not!

I think taking too long to work on a record you sort of lose some of the feeling, so I write as fast as I can; it's just this manic phase where I'm by myself and or on tour and I write and I write. And I send them to the guys, and we start planning our studio ventures.

You're not really going to know what a place is like 'til you've lived there a few years - you sort of just have to go with your gut.

Literature is a mystical place for me. It's not dry. It's where miracles happen.

I'll keep making records until I don't have more ideas for records.

I am a person of high energy. That, and I sit down and I write when I get an idea - I put other things aside.