“The older I get, the more I realize that you don’t have to be around people you don’t want to be around, and you don’t have to be in a situation you don’t want to be in. You have the power to rise up and leave.”

Never let your fear decide your fate.

There’s a bunch of songs that I call B-sides on the record that you could argue could maybe have some potential commercial success with another artist, but for me, they just felt really whack.

My first attempt at real music was when I was 13. My first signed band was when I was 21; that failed. I got another deal at 26; that failed, and then I was broke.

I have a lot of questions and I don’t have that many answers. So what better place to exercise those thoughts than the lyrics, I guess.

I find that a lot of times when family members get bronchitis or the flu or something like that, I’ll kind of skate through and be really lucky and not get that sick.

I want to surround myself with the people I care about and that has a lot to do with what love is. It’s surrounding yourself with the people you do love and trust, and that kind of thing.

If you’re waiting around for something to be handed to you or win the lottery, chances are nothing is ever going to go down, you know, so you got to make it happen on your own.

Some people are more affected by, I hate to use the word “success,” but I don’t know what else to say, but some people are more affected by that than others.

I’ve had the same friends I’ve always had. I mean, I’ve lost a few over the years.

I’ve always found it pretty difficult to write a happy song. Since I was a kid, when I pick up my guitar it’s been hard for me to write some sort of bubblegum lyrics. It’s not really ever been my route.

I don’t know that I can say what exactly love means to me because it would be hard to put that into perspective.

I’ve always found it pretty difficult to write a happy song.

You don’t put out music unless you have a sense that people will maybe like what you’re doing or you’re standing for something artistically.

I really love music and I want to make it better the best I can.

Look, one of the things that I know for sure is that none of us truly knows. That’s it. It’ll hit you later.

My drummer is my favorite drummer in the world, and he also happens to be the funniest person you’ll meet.

People say to me, “When did you come out?” But I was never in! When I was about six, I was swanning around the house in clothes that belonged to my mother and my grandmother which I’d found in an attic, saying, “I am a beautiful princess!”

It is the lot of man to share in the deeper aspirations of the universe around him and to share his own destiny as well as that of the universe, now by adjusting himself to its forces, now by putting the whole of his energy to his own ends and purposes.

I always write about war, love, death, and injustice. There’s plenty of that around, so I never run out of ideas.

Grief is like a wheel that goes around and around the world.

It is bad enough to be condemned to drag around this image in which nature has imprisoned me.

In NASCAR, you can do a lot of banging around and get pretty serious and even get yourself upside down.

Great advice comes from people that have been around a lot longer than you.

Humans are the only creatures with the ability to dive deep in the sea, fly high in the sky, send instant messages around the globe, reflect on the past, assess the present and imagine the future.