When I became conscious of being a person, when I was very small, I knew that I was from Indiana, but I had never seen Indiana. I was born there, but we moved when I was, like, a year old. I always had a sense of a place that was far away from where I was. I would research it and find out about it and I remember on Christmas morning I used to always call Indiana to find out what the weather was like; to see if it was snowing or not.

I seem to get the best work when I'm angry and depressed and alienated.

If my songs are being listened to between any other songs, that is awesome, and I'm glad people are getting something out of them. We go to countries like Germany, where I can't imagine that all of my fans are engaging with the lyrics first and foremost. I think they're catching a vibe, a feeling. I consider myself a lyricist first and foremost, but if you get something else out of what I do, that's fine too. I'm not sitting back and telling people how they have to take my stuff. We just want to play music, and hope that people like it.

The process of touring is always so weird to me. Once you've made the album, that's over, you move along.

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

Giving up and doing something else (nursing, for me) was exactly what eventually led me to making music that other people wanted to hear.

When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you.