What saves me from being a drug addict is sort of the opposite. It's me realizing that I don't really control anything.

You can go out and find ways to make your own record and get it out there now. If you really want to, you can be heard. Keep things simple. Learn to go out and play solo. That's a really really good thing to learn, if you're a singer-songwriter. Don't be dependent on a band because you may not always be able to afford one.

I feel like I owe my audience something. They feed my kids. And I really like my job, a lot.

I do not believe Tony Blair was a fundamentally good man who went bad. I believe he was evil in the first place.

When you're really bummed out, the last thing you want to hear is up-tempo and positive. And it lets you know that you're not alone, that somebody has hurt before. It works the same way with chick songs as it does with political songs. When you hear somebody singing about these things, you know that you're not alone, that somebody else is suspicious of what's going on around us in the world. So you don't feel like you're crazy, and you feel like you might be able to make a difference.

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

I'm one of the few people that I know that sings better than they did 20 years ago.