I'm finding that writing poetry is strengthening my songwriting, because you're learning to make a piece of writing work on a page with nothing else. I was also finding within poetry I felt a lot more free to write about very different matters, to write about social issues or things that are going on around me.

I studied art just short of the level where you can earn a degree.

I'm always writing, the past 10 years. A lot has changed, in that it's something I do every day.

And all of these writers offer me a greater understanding of what it is to be alive, and that is such an incredible thing art can do for other people. It made me want to try and get close to this strange, mysterious thing that people can do with words.

I always wanted to be an artist. I think I was just waiting on somebody to approve me and be like, "Oh, okay, you should be an artist," you know 'cause it wasn't until I stopped looking for approval that I could actually do it.

I'm not an autobiographical writer, but I am a writer who deals with human emotion on all levels.

Obviously, the emotions I want to convey through music are streamed through the way I interpret life.