I draw from my family and my friends and I feel like that small-town person. The achievements, the materialistic possessions have really become to mean less. They mean nothing.

I have a healthy cynicism, but not anger.

We talk about defining moments, but I think nothing can define you. They're all refining moments. You're constantly refining yourself and refining your life.

I feel like I am beginning to be a part of a musical community, but I wouldn't say I'm a country artist because I wouldn't want to invalidate anybody else or to even begin to be so preposterous as to think I can just skate into town and get some fans.

I have a philosophy that everything you write doesn't have to be good for everybody. There are going to be people that get irritated by some of the things I write-including my parents. And then there are going to be people that you draw in because of the pointedness of certain things.

Making miracles is hard work, most people give up before they happen.

However I am is however I am. When you see me onstage or in the press, there's not a lot of thought and calculation that goes into it.