“One of my goals is to find an unsigned YouTube artist and feature them on my album. That’s what I wished someone would’ve done for me.”

I was carrying my friend in his casket to put him in the hearse, and I was thinking, ‘I need to write a song for this guy, because he always told me I would have a No. 1 song.’

I don’t love the whole Hollywood mentality, but I do love the weather and how motivated everyone is around here. It motivates me to make fun music. I’m an East Coaster – I’m from New Jersey, so I’ll probably feel like that forever.

I listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye and Motown records.

When I get high anxiety, I vomit. My mom was so stressed out. Then I found out I was staying in John Mayer’s old dorm room, and I had a nice roommate. That completely brought me down. I was completely comfortable at Berklee.

I started making remixes for every specific girl I wanted to date. That’s how I learned how to use Pro Tools, and then I started making my own music.

I’ve always made weird sounds with my mouth. I’ve always been fascinated by the sound design, what you can do with your mouth. I was the kid dancing around in third grade on the basketball court. While everyone would be playing sports, I would be jumping around.

It’s crazy because I have a scar on my right eyebrow, but people who don’t know me very well think that I just intentionally shave that part of it.

I started piano when I was four. My mom taught me. And then I went to Manhattan School of Music during high school, like every Saturday. And then I went to Berklee for college, in Boston.

When Marvin Gaye made his music, he evoked this feeling that would reach everybody.

I’ve always weaseled my way into Grammy parties to network and everything, but now I have a legitimate reason to be there – it’s so cool.

The scar on my eye is a result of the doctor’s sewing up my face. It was 450 stitches and plastic surgery.

Everyone’s gone through a breakup, and I’ve dated girls in the past where… I’ve never had a messy breakup, thankfully, but I’m never the one to end it. I’m always caught off guard as to why things ended because I guess I’m oblivious in a way.

Shy Carter helped me write ‘One Call Away.’ He is a brand new artist. I really want to help jumpstart his career because I think he’s super-talented.

When I wrote ‘Marvin Gaye,’ my whole intention was to make a record that people would put on a record player… and just instantly make out with each other.

If a girl sings a sexy song, I actually become even more attracted to them.

It’s very easy for people to put out music.

You can tell an honest artist from one who’s just given all their songs.

I love my body. I’m very much OK with it. I don’t think artists are ever the ones who have the problem with their weight, it is other people.

The center of the stage is where I am.

I don’t have stylistic loyalty. That’s why people perceive me changing all the time. But there is a real continuity in my subject matter. As an artist of artifice, I do believe I have more integrity than any one of my contemporaries.

Zhang Yimou is an artist. Sometimes we did only two or three shots a day because we were waiting for the sun.

Ignorance and arrogance are the artist’s and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.”

I came out to L.A. to be a songwriter and not an artist, and I’m so excited because I always secretly wanted to be an artist.

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.