It's not unusual for writers to look backward. Because that's your pool of resources. If you were to write something now, I bet there's a pretty good chance you'd call on your teenage years, your experiences then, stuff you learned then.

When you first get money, you buy all these things so no one thinks you're mean, and you spread it around. You get a chauffeur and you find yourself thrown around the back of this car and you think, I was happier when I had my own little car! I could drive myself!

What's wrong with sentimental? Sentimental means you like stuff.

There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store.

Songs have some kind of structure that connects with people`s hearts.

I lost my voice. I'd never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down.

The most important ingredient to making a song work is the magic. You've got a melody, you've got words, but on the more successful songs, there's a sort of magic glow that just happens and you can feel it happening. It just makes the songs sort of roll out.