“That’s where the songs come from: that’s what I’d most want people to understand. What sounds good or looks good, that’s nothing. The only worthwhile thing in art is seeing someone else’s heart.”

It’s impossible having five, six, seven people in a room being creative together and not fight, because you want to fight. It’s the only way creativity works, if you all put your ideas in.

When so much money is involved in these movies, someone somewhere is going to try to screw you.

But what you realise after you’ve been in the business for a while is that people develop opinions about you that don’t have anything to do with your music, they like or dislike you for a million reasons, they like or dislike you for your last record.

Closeness to another person is like a fear of falling off a building to me. It’s really, like, physically painful, and it’s a brand of crazy I don’t appreciate having.

I can’t remember all the times I’ve tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass

Bravery is what you can do in the face of things that hurt and scare you, but you do it anyway.

Eventually, they’ll just go away, because you will make them sad. That’s something I’ve proven quite adept at doing over the years.

You live through stuff, and it affects the way you feel about the world, and you write about it.

For me, songwriting is something like breathing: I just do it. But that doesn’t mean you’re fantastic.

Sometimes the world seems like a big hole. You spend all your life shouting down it and all you hear are echoes of some idiot yelling nonsense down a hole.

I have a lot of problems understanding connections between people and how to negotiate that. It makes everything hard offstage.

For all the things I’m losing I might aswell resign myself to try and make a change.

Closeness to other people is really hard, but it’s also a shame because it’s all you want too. But it doesn’t always work.

I think that, often, the people who can make you happy are right there, and having them in your life would make your life better, but you can’t see how to do it.

If you want to really love someone, you’ve got to let go and loosen up and just care.

I find that truly heartbreaking that, like, it’s such a common, constant thing in people’s lives – a brutal abuse of people by other people, and it’s just accepted.

Unexpected romantic gestures are very important and keep things exciting.

Once you get into the habit of work, you can be more productive in the things you want to do.

The best thing a man can do on a first date is be a friend.

The hardest thing as an actor is that you work really hard constantly for these roles, and you invest so much in it.

All the things I thought I was – simple and plain and sometime funny – are very small words.

The amazing thing is that I found something so early that I can support myself doing.

Sometimes there aren’t reasons behind the terrible things that go on.

The only urgent thing in life is the pursuit of love. You get that one right, and you’ve solved the mystery.