I grew up around poets and novelists and my dad wrote poems about everything - from a cat sleeping in a window to a car wreck he passed on the highway. I learned not to censor myself: that was one of things I learned in my apprenticeship, my creative-writing apprenticeship with my dad.

I don't keep a journal anymore. I did when I was a teenager, but now because I write about it all in my songs, that's what I'm really doing.

Blaze Foley was a genius and a beautiful loser.

You can't be afraid to deal with your demons. You've got to go there to be able to write.

I'm in a contented, loving relationship, but that doesn't mean I'm not struggling with other things that are going on around me in the world.

Sometimes I feel like I just open myself up like I'm a vehicle for something coming through me. It's like a meditative state I have to be in.

Sade's stuff is real deceptive. She's got stuff about prostitutes, poverty and people on the streets.