I'm not somebody that has an encyclopedic knowledge of ballads and could sit around a fire and sing songs for three hours. I basically only know the songs that I've taken on and reworked and recorded.

I like to carry around extremely pretentious books, and I don't know if I can read them, but if I hold them near me, it imbues me with a sense of powerful intelligence.

If I pick up a fiddle, I don't compose on it, so much as I just play whatever.

Guitar comes more out of its limitations for me, like putting it in a weird tuning and then just go places.

I am a complete jazz nerd.

Reading books is fantastic. I didn't do it until ten years ago. It's great.

I'm not really a folk singer, but I love the music and there's certain lines that will get just stuck in my head, and they seem to be stuck there for a reason, and I start singing them.