I was the oldest child, and both my parents worked, so I had a great deal of responsibility from a very young age.

Girls are crazy and mean. They don't fight fair.

Don't make a threat and then not do it.

The first song I wrote was the first song I remember thinking, "Well, maybe I can do something here." The very first one. By the second one I knew I could do something.

It's striking how commercially viable that impulse for instant intimacy is right now, especially in songs and writing.

Yes I think I'm okay, walked into the door again.

Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that theres a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.