My politics were really radical when I was younger, and then I moderated like everyone else does when they start having kids.

I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

I'm used to writing stories with a beginning a middle and an end in four minutes.

My son was diagnosed with autism. He's OK, he makes eye contact, but he doesn't talk. He needs eight hours a day of very intensive school, and you wouldn't even believe me if I told you how much it costs.

I'm trying to make records where people don't feel cheated. Nashville has been guilty of insulting the Country Music audience for years and years.

By the time I wrote those first three songs for his new CD ... I wanted to push the poetics as hard as I could push them, and not decide the songs were finished until I committed them to whatever the recording format was. I went through drafts right up until I recorded every single one of them.

I've been a serial husband, and I've done it badly every time.