“All that we can’t say is all we need to hear.”

I grew up with the Blind Boys’ music. My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center. I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.

Every man’s actions belong to him.

There’s no love like a lost love and no pain like a broken heart.

I get diminishing returns when I bore myself in an interview.

I’m more afraid of falling than I am of flying high. I’m not as scared of dying as I am of growing old. Every battle has its glory and its consequence.

My choice is what I choose to be.

My choice is what I choose to do and if I’m causing no harm it shouldn’t bother you. Your choice is who you choose to be and if you’re causin’ no harm, then your alright with me.

My main concern when travelling around the world is finding a place to skateboard!

My band is the best band in the world, period. So, I insist on every song being better than it is on the record. So by the end of the tour, we have to be playing the song better than how it’s recorded.

It turns out that there is something more magnificent than nature. It’s love.

The music is in the lead here, and a large part of this, I have no idea what I’m doing. I feel a closer bond with the craft of songwriting, stronger than I ever have.

Could’ve sworn I heard you say Amen this morning, showing some kind of sign that you believe. Did it fall from your tongue without warning? Or just another trick to fall from your sleeve?

Fearlessness, absolutely. Discipline. You also need open-minded creativeness that lets everything in. You never want to lose a word or a phrase, yet every one should count. Always the best language possible. And, finally, knowing when to leave it alone. Stop when it’s done.

It’s not easy for a mother and son to sing a duet. You can’t just sing about anything.

My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center.

Every single time I step into the studio, I say, ‘Can I still do this? Do I still have it? Have I ever had it?’ I suppose there’s a good amount of self-loathing that goes into any form of artisanship.

I drag a lot of stuff round with me that I don’t need.

I think for me, home needs to be a sanctuary. I need to feel like I’ve escaped the day when I get home.

You know how misleading an image is. You see an image in the newspaper, if they left the caption off, good luck knowing what’s going on. There is something inherently misleading about images, so they need annotation.

In fact, the world needs more nerds.

Never mind the cream; it will always rise to the top. It’s the skim milk that needs good teachers.

Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot.

One of the biggest and most pleasant surprises is that, even when you have that need to keep up an appearance of being right or knowing, there is life after admitting you don’t know and that’s beautiful.

The key to growing a business is that you need to be meeting some segment of the consumer’s needs. If you’ve got a small business and a product or service that is not popular, you simply have to change your product or service to be more popular.