I want to live with that sense with the music I make, with the art I make, with the way I love my kids, with the way I am a father and a husband and a friend and a follower of Christ, I want to live with reckless abandonment to the truth of the Gospel.

Success breeds volume, and it's just amazing how many young writers, artists, and musicians there are in town.

When I go to Africa and spend more time there with people who are the least of the least, those in desperate situations, I am broken by it. But I also find people with so much more joy and freedom living with nothing than I see walking down the streets of my own community here in Tennessee.

I believe very confidently in the truth of Scripture, where it says that there is no authority, no power given to man except as given by God.

Cars are the reason we, you know, people live or die.

I am prone to reshape and refashion things to try and please as many people as I can, to get as many nods or smiles out of as many people as possible.

I've been here 21 years, and I literally did walk up and down Music Row trying to break into the business. I felt very free to go into any publishing company.