I don't write music for critics or hipsters. I write for me.

If you find yourself perplexed, or perhaps in a quandary, remember that human growth is perpendicular. We grow up and we grow forward, we just have to keep on growing steadily in both ways.

People who have nothing to say, speak the loudest.

When I'm around people who are incredibly passionate about what they're doing, people who live their lives in a more selfless way than most people. That's when I'm inspired. That's what I aspire to do and be.

The disparity between being a 10-year-old boy playing air guitar, wishing I was a rock star, and the reality of the whole thing is insane. A girl will throw her bra onstage, and I say to myself, if I was the guy that pumped your gas today, would you throw your bra at me?

When I was 18, there were 50 people that I called my friends. Today, there are only three, but I'm glad to have those three. If you have three people that you can really call your friends, then you truly have it made.

The fear of rejection really kind of stunts your growth as a person. I mean, it's like a friend of mine says, who cares if you fail? Who cares if you fail? It's like babies try to get up and walk all the time and they keep falling down. If we just gave up, we'd all be crawling around.