“It’s like being in the position of – in half of the industry’s mind, you’re kind of a cult-following, independent rocker. And on the other hand, you’re a sellout. But neither one of them are right.”

I think a lot of good directors listen to music while they’re working. The songs just don’t become a part of the film. They’re replaced.

The nature of honesty is that if someone has information or knows something about you that you don’t want heard, then they have power over you.

My parents told me I must get married. I was seen as a failure if I didn’t do it.

I think people use temp music quite a bit, but the people who write the temp music don’t ever really learn that their music was inspiring a movie.

And all I really want to say is you’re the reason I want to stay.

When someone really goes to tell you something about what they’re thinking, they’re going to wear that experience with them. That’s what you have to share.

I do have that mindset – that most good art comes from some turmoil, from someone trying to come to some equilibrium, or come up and get a breath.

I drink a lot, probably too much. My scene while writing lyrics is always a bottle of scotch and stacks of note cards, pencil and pencil sharpener. I throw around note cards and drink.

People aren’t going to sit there very often, not your average public, and your average music-business monster is not going to take the time to notice the overtones and the undertones inside the flavor. They’d rather just have the martini.

Everything I write is personal, really. Even when I’m sarcastic, it’s quite personal. And on this record, from the production to the singing to the performances, I got it really honest.

If I’m in a relationship and my girlfriend is sleeping with other people, I don’t need to know who it is; I just want to know how she feels about it.

I start songs all the time. If I weren’t so lazy, I would finish them. It’s like when I have a deadline I have to.

I divorce myself from listeners who aren’t tolerant of humor. I did notice universally that, especially when it comes to weight, people look in the mirror and get the angle just right, tell themselves it’s all right, and then they go out.

But I really do have a soft spot for the solo shows. Any musician who writes and sings will tell you that’s the center of it, that is it. It’s almost like there’s something church-like about it and you gotta go back there, if you’re a songwriter that sings your material.

I’m not really a strange person or anything, so if there’s music I like, usually there’s other people who like it too.

In many ways, I’ve chosen to be plain, almost too plain, too self-effacing. Like, if I record a vocal and I don’t like the way it sounds, I would have them turn it up and take the reverb off it to make it as plain as possible.

Juggling is an illusion. In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession. It is actually task switching.

The strength of this country lies in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and the freedom of speech and thought.

She’s not your unicorn. She’s her own mother fucking dragon.

I also believe that everyone needs to think independently and make their own decisions on what makes the most sense.

There is a real world independent of our senses; the laws of nature were not invented by man, but forced on him by the natural world. They are the expression of a natural world order.

There is nothing to fear from truth….Being truthful is essential to being an independent thinker and obtaining greater understanding of what is right.

To make money in the markets, you have to think independently and be humble.

I value self-discipline, but creating systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave is more reliable than self-control.