“My point is I’m kind of an outlier. For whatever reason, the success still blows my mind – that I’m able to talk to people about the music I’ve written.”

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.

Let’s say I’m at a party and I don’t like the feeling I’m getting, I’ll just leave. Why do I have to be there?

Man is unable to see himself entirely unrelated to mankind, neither is he able to see mankind unrelated to life, nor life unrelated to the universe.

I think The Grateful Dead kind of represents the spirit of being able to go out and have an adventure in America at large.

We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.

Anyone can have a good day, but you have to be able to perform on a bad day.

It’s the Tiger Woods effect. What he was able to accomplish at such a young age – he drew me to the game, and I can only speak for myself, but a lot of the players that are my age saw Tiger in his prime when we were all teenagers.

The thing I would like to be able to do is to make the music sound right no matter what it is. If somebody else wants to have a label for it, then that’s their business.

We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life, a simple life, a good life.

Nobody wants to get hurt. Nobody wants to hurt anybody. We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life.