I don't want somebody telling my daughter who she can marry, or what she can do with her body. That's what was at stake.

Weirdly, I was still trying to be the older brother, and trying to get him [Tom Berninger] to try to be more like me a little bit. Or not be more like me but... I was frustrated that he sometimes let things stop him in his life, and he let the wind get knocked out of his sails a few times.

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

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

A song is a song and, if I am emotionally connected to do it, whether it is sad or not sad, I am going to chase that song.

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.

Getting on stage and performing and standing under lights is such an unsettling experience - in a good and bad way - but it's the only place I can go to feel comfortable.