I was a songwriter; that was the torch I carried. This is an honorable profession. This is what I do.

Sometimes the fragment of a conversation, the color of the sky, the image in a dream, has everything to do with where the song begins.

Being in the studio is like painting, you know, you can really take your time, and try different things, and kind of go deep into it.

For me, art is a more trustworthy expression of God than religion.

I adhere to the religion of art and music and small children.

I have learned to be steady in my course of love, or fear, or loneliness, rather than impulsive in its wasting, either lyrically or emotionally.

As John Adams said, all democracies will eventually self-destruct. We seem to be doing it very quickly.