“There are a lot of artists who have gotten pretty caught up in that. That’s why I like the defeatist attitude. Just assume that no one is going to like it and that no one cares, and you’ll end up making something that you really like.”

There are moments where, as a performer, you’re on stage and you feel like you’re exactly where you’re meant to be in the universe. It’s a rare and beautiful thing when it happens.

I’ve tried to make music that’s more universal, but for me, it’s most successful emotionally when it’s most specific to what I’m going through.

In the silence, hear what can’t be heard.

There’s a great expression that says, “God is a jealous lover,” and it’s a very accurate expression that has nothing to do with whatever you see god or nature as.

If I feel really authentically in my body, then everything seems to click. But, sometimes I can only get into that, if the atmosphere is already conducive to that with the sound and all that stuff.

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 moments when I first made something, like when I first wrote a song please me so intensely. Everything else after that is just the act of communication.

The moments when I first made something, like when I first wrote a song please me so intensely. Everything else after that is just the act of communication.

I like albums where all the songs are written in one go. If you’re trying to create the number-one album with the best songs ever,

Imitate the sun. Don’t worry if people understand you. Just shine shine shine.

I get why you’d want to write for three years and pick the best ones, but for me, I’d rather hear a group of songs that are all expressing a state, or time of your life. I think it’s more that.

As a musician or a performer, you’re meant to know what you’re about, but it’s ridiculous that someone 14 would have any idea of what they’re about.

Interviewers have to be work really hard to be good. They¹re more inclined to be bad. Generally, they can go either way, but interviewing on a whole isn¹t such a useful thing. I¹m not a big fan of (interviews), really.

I watch a lot of TV and I got some new hair products.

The other day my house caught fire.

I feel like science fiction is so much more mainstream now than it has been. And I feel like thats because technology has caught up with us.

You’ve got a big, big problem if you get caught up in what people say.

Don’t get caught up on ‘I’m brown, black, white, red, blue, whatever.’ You gotta ask, what were you called before 1492?

For a stretch of time, I got really caught up in the idea that what people liked about my work was that I was a young guy.

The more you tour, the better the band gets, and you get caught up in a lot more things than just traveling. It becomes a way to survive.

Touring is a rough thing. You don’t have any time to look around or stop and think if what you’re doing is making you happy.

Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. It is only when you stop and look to the rear that you see the corpse caught under your wheel.