You gotta lean towards the things that make you like yourself. Forget everything else.

Live on coffee and flowers. Try not to worry what the weather will be.

There are records that you just sink into. They coincide with what you’re going through and become an ally. If our records do that for people, that’s the greatest compliment I could ever receive. That’s one of the reasons making music is so important to me, because there’s a very strange emotional reach. For me—more than books or movies or other things—music is like a mainline to your heart.

Not all the songs are real events, but I do write about stuff that is close to my heart and it comes out one way or another.

The last thing you want to do is write songs about being in a band.

I can only write songs when somebody gives me some water to swim in. Otherwise, I'm a fish on the beach.

It's not hard to connect with the music on an emotional level and get inside the songs. It's odd, very vulnerable, and slightly embarrassing to be standing and singing and playing music in front of a bunch of strangers.