I'm a big believer that if there's something you really want to do, don't walk away because of the deal.

What are the stories you want people to tell about you?

We all get outraged by things and there are things that make us angry and maybe for a while we get angry enough to actually go do something about it.

In the land of ideas, you are always renting.

Ego is something that everybody, creative especially, has to grapple with. You need enough ego to keep going but not so much ego that you're deaf or blind, that you're making a mistake and can't fix the course.

I think that it's fear. The musicians themselves don't seem to know enough about why they're in the positions they're in, so they're afraid to lose those positions. If you're 22 years old and you can't believe you're even in the position to have a career making music, the first thing you're going to think is: Maintain. Don't lose it. And that's precisely what causes you to lose everything.

I find myself in situations a lot where I have to say to someone, "This can be better," and it's hard to say that.