“Certain kinds of people will always have an issue with my music. But that’s fine; it’s OK. I don’t want to be the McDonald’s of music.”

If I’m gonna be stuck inside might as well keep it dreamy.

Newsflash: karma’s an even bigger bitch than me.

Say what you think, Love who you love.

Too many people focus on writing what they think they should write, what should be in a song, what radio would want.

Creativity happens where it’s dangerous and scary: where you’re not comfortable.

I drink to feel I smoke to breathe Just look what love has done to me.

If I’m not writing about myself, then I sit down with people I really dig writing with and throw ’em out and see if something sticks. Their brain plus mine hopefully will make something interesting and cool and it will just snowball and we’ll have a unique song by the end of it.

Don’t wreck my reputation, Let me wreck my own.

Follow your arrow, Wherever it points.

It’s hard to remember a time when I wasn’t writing.

I know what I want and it gets in my way. I know I’m not easy.

Im all about small towns. I think its a great place to grow up.

A great song will be great forever – it’s timeless and classic in that way.

I know not every song has to be a powerful message.

Legs longer than my marriage.

I used to write poems more when I was younger, but I haven’t in a long time. I just write ideas and paragraphs and go from there.

Each issue has to be looked at as to whether or not it threatens a woman’s health or her life, and if it does, you can’t support it. And if she just wants to have her legal right to an abortion, she should be able to do it.

We don’t discuss this issue [ chemical weapons ] in public because we never said that we have it, and we never said that we don’t have it. It’s a Syrian issue ; it’s a military issue we never discuss in public with anyone.

Most people who are activists and are concerned about issues get their information from sources which reinforce their opinions and give them the facts that they want to hear.

I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war.

As an actor, I have casting issues. I’m a minority. I don’t have trouble making a living, but as far as being on the food chain of the pecking order of actors, I’m not at the top of it. With the jobs that I do, there are always control issues with directors and producers.

On the most recent battles on health insurance reform, the women led the battle to end gender discrimination by the insurance companies [where] women paid more and got less of a benefit, and also the whole issue of prevention.

The basic building block of peace and security for all peoples is economic and social security, anchored in sustainable development. It is a key to all problems. Why? Because it allows us to address all the great issues-poverty, climate, environment and political stability-as parts of the whole.

We appear to be overplaying this global warming issue as global warming is nothing new.