I love lots of different types of music, but it's music that has this up-swelling of beauty and emotion that is most important to me.

Music can always serve a role in people's lives when it's emotional and warm and inviting and beautiful.

Every single day the world seems like it is on the brink of falling apart. But then I look outside my window, and things look about the same as they did a week ago. It's almost a form of cognitive dissonance.

I always feel kind of absurd and presumptuous presenting a speech.

For me to speak out against the war in Iraq, you know - most of my fans are lefties anyway, so I don't really get much flack for it.

I know, in my heart of hearts, I don't do things for money.

Intellectually, human beings and animals may be different, but it's pretty obvious that animals have a rich emotional life and that they feel joy and pain. It's easy to forget the connection between a hamburger and the cow it came from. But I forced myself to acknowledge the fact that every time I ate a hamburger, a cow had ceased to breathe