“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.”

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.

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.

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.

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

We’re trying to impress ourselves in a way. That’s why we keep trying to do things better. We never get satisfied.

Don’t worry, Mel. Miracles don’t work that way. I’ll never lose you. I’ll never let you get away from me.

I’d rather be B.B. King. That’s the way I started. Let the heavy metal guys play heavy metal, let the others play the other … I try to do what I do better, not get away from it.

But I did go to music really early on, even when I was 4 or 5, I was responding to music probably in ways other kids were not.

I prefer to channel my problems and inner demons through a character. Another persona. That protects me and my family. I can get my frustrations out that way.

I’m now so much more capable of receiving love and giving it in a far different way.

Actually, if I could deliberately sit down and write a pop hit, all my songs would be pop hits! Let’s put it this way. I play what I like to hear. And sometimes I like to hear something poppy, and sometimes I don’t.

I do think that drugs and alcohol have been glorified and exoticized in such a way that it gets into the art world.