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

Some girls are taught to be sexy.

I think that if you have a strong narrative, if the idea of the song can be boiled down to the basics, it won't change that much.

I didn't go out looking for fights as a kid, but if it was necessary, I'd fight. Fighting was a daily thing where we lived.

I like to write about things that are extreme in some form. I like to write about something I feel I have to write about.

I was always inventing characters and making up stories.

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.