The trick is to have a career and have a family. It's like having two dogs that hate each other and you have to take them for a walk every night.

I was a fireman. I lived in the fire sta­tion for about a year. The pay wasn't so good. It was kind of like being in the army, or what I imagine that would be like.

You know when you throw a party, you think people will show up and no one will like each other. It's like that with music - parts of your musical psyche have never met other parts. You wonder if you should get them together.

They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing.

Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June.

All records are riddles, and whatever you may want people to think it's about, it may just be throwing them off. And you don't want it to get in the way of what someone else's understanding is. It's not really about anything. At the same time, it will find some meaning.

Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.