“I always saw myself as an old man living in the mountains playing a guitar, but I didn’t really turn that into a desire to be a professional musician or a singer or a rock star or anything like that.”

What I strive to do with songwriting is be really honest, authentic and try to be open and share that with people. I choose that over trying to be clever, poetic, or lyrical.

Follow your heart and you won’t get lost.

I think everybody, no matter what they eat, they should eat at least fifty percent raw food. But I eat some seafood.

I can write songs, but I’m not gonna really feel good about the song unless it feels like me, and I’m not gonna release a song or put it on an album or play it in concert unless it really feels like me.

I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a musician. I wanted to travel and write songs and be a good songwriter. It came to me slowly after college.

Pain is a part of life. It’s certainly part of my creative process.

I’m a very typical yoga-practicing musician; I do it when I can. I’m not hardcore about it. A lot of my lyrics talk about celebrating life and working through pain. I think that’s what yoga’s about, getting rid of, moving energy and letting it flow through you.

I like to still have thought and be aware of people and whatever that’s happening, but I also like to just focus on the words that I’m saying.

The people at festivals are much more open to dance and just sing along. They come right up to the stage and they’re very thankful.

It’s usually kids that normally don’t have a chance to get to meet each other because they’re separated by millions of different things.

Nothing has happened too fast, nothing has happened too slow. It has been a mellow rise, and I’m thankful for that. I haven’t lost my head, and I haven’t lost my desire to keep growing.

I used to want to be fully observational, but I’m just not that kind of writer. My process always changes depending on how, when, and where inspiration stiles me.

I think most artists would agree, it’s one thing to be playing in front of a crowd that’s loving it, it’s another thing to add cameras, but it’s a really cool trade off to be on television.

Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened.

We no longer demand that sensory consciousness be anything other than an existing condition that we can use skillfully according to time and place.

I would love, more than anything, to do an out-and-out farce with huge physical energy.

Remember you dont meditate to get anything, but to get rid of things.

I never talk about my personal life. After these rumours, I definitely do not want to comment on anything.

Do not be a bodhisattva, do not be an arahant, do not be anything at all. If you are a bodhisattva, you will suffer, if you are an arahant, you will suffer, if you are anything at all, you will suffer.

Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.

Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, THAT is your teacher.