I'm finding things out about myself as a person - as a writer - as I write, and so are the people who listen to what I do. But they have this additional aspect of how they take the stuff that I do, and so it broadens the work and it creates this strange connection. It's really a way of strangers communicating through this third thing, which is a body of work. But really, I know it's a cliché to say I write for myself, but I write for myself.

Everybody experiences reality in a way that's only true for them.

I think The Sunset Tree is really the album on which I really learned to trust other musicians, which is so important.

I usually kind of can't wait until my records leak. Back in the day, you could give people tapes, but you can't do that anymore, because it would be available to everyone on the planet within an hour.

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.

I'm not really a goal-oriented guy. I started doing the Mountain Goats just for the sheer hell of it.

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.