“I’m not sure I’ll ever be famous by anyone’s definition. I can only hope to be allowed by the audience to continue my life’s work.”

The first thing I think of when I think about coming to Las Vegas and playing is always Elvis; its always the first thing on my mind.

Wherever is your heart I call home.

Privilege and complacency paralyze me with fear sometimes.

Good planning avoids the need for fixing up a project that plowed ahead without thought… about potential pitfalls.

The purpose of it all is love.

There’s a lot of really inspiring music coming around the bend – we tend to believe that to sound classic or timeless is to sound vintage or retro. It’s a little bit dangerous, because you’ll really miss a chance to make your mark as a generation.

The mole can’t live in your dollhouse.

My advice to new artists is to embrace a broader concept of timelessness than vintage or retro.

If I learned to play guitar it was so that I would have something to sing to, if I learned to write a song it was so that I would have something to sing. So the gut feeling you’re talking about comes from singing and communicating the lyrics and what it is that we feel.

If you check your ego at the door when it comes to comedy, you’ve got a pretty good shot at making a great movie that you can commit yourself to, you can jump off the proverbial cliff with, and have a great time, and the audiences respond to that.

The philosophy has always been pretty clean and straightforward, which is that if I see something that I like and I can see it’s value to the audience and it’s value to me then I’m going to take my shot at it regardless at the genre.

I try to bring the audience’s own drama – tears and laughter they know about – to them.

Although it is a fantasy film, it’s as real as it can be. You have to imagine that an audience will buy their ticket to a cinema and get on a first-class flight and journey to Middle Earth.

I don’t believe in elitism. I don’t think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.

What I’m hoping is that every album I’m going to do will give my audience something different, and that they’ll grow as I do.

To be in love is to see yourself as someone else sees you, it is to be in love with the falsified and exalted image of yourself. In love we are incapable of honor – the courageous act is no more than playing a part to an audience of two.

The audience’s reactions are more important: if people believe in the love story, it’s because they love how we’ve acted. That’s the most beautiful award. It’s very important for me, people appreciating what I do.