I'm a grown-ass man. I can't be, like, ordering people to put down their phones.

Advice is not really very useful. People gave me terrible advice, and I guess I was just smart enough to ignore some of it.

I wanted to be a writer when I was a little kid. Then I wanted to be Pete Townshend - the songwriting guitarist who occasionally sang.

I saw an interview with Jay-Z where he said he didn't write down any of his lyrics, so I tried that.

When you wrote a song way back in the day, you were writing material to play live. And you would buy the CD at the shows if you like the show. You may not listen to the CD, you might just throw it in the back of your car and let it warp in the sun. The main thing was you saw the song at the show.

I'm fascinated with the attitude of younger rock bands, even ones that are making money at it. I don't ever hear them talk about it as a "career." It almost makes me think there isn't even a music industry anymore, like an atom bomb fell and it was just eradicated forever.

I'm a total ho for any writing workshop, any technique from anyone.