I always thought that if I was popular I must be doing something wrong.

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

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 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 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 had some fears as a kid, but I was also relatively fearless. Maybe that's a result of living half the time in reality and the other half in fantasy.

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