But I never want to get to the point where I write a safe song or one that represents my sense of a subject in order to appear civilized.

Writing is always personal in some way but not always in a direct way.

If language were liquid, it would be rushing in. Instead here we are in a silence more eloquent than any word could ever be.

To me, a feminist belong in the same category as a humanist or an advocate for human rights. I don't see why someone who's a feminist should be thought of differently.

I always thought that if I was popular I must be doing something wrong.

I like to write about things that are extreme in some form. I like to write about something I feel I have to write about.

A lot of my writing is not terribly civilized.

There are no rules in fights with girls. Just hurting.

I was always inventing characters and making up stories.

I dont think gender is aesthetically defining for me.

I had some fears as a kid, but I was also relatively fearless. Maybe that's a result of living half the time in reality and the other half in fantasy.

A bird only conquers the sky when it has mastered enough courage to lose sight of the ground.

Everything, really, has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch. How strange man is! His touch defiles and yet he contains the source of miracles.

The tattoo is there not because I believe there is something wrong with me. It's there to remind me that our flaws are our strengths

We all do make mistakes…many times. What is commendable is that you try to find solutions. You just don’t give up.

.Fire can heal. Somebody needs to see the light, somebody needs to feel the heat. Burn..

Thence, I suppose, my natural disposition to make fresh acquaintances, and to break with them so readily, although always for a good reason, and never through mere fickleness.

I set myself up to be a bass guitarist and bass players get a lot more work than people like me.

I try not to say exactly what songs are about sometimes, because I feel like it ruins it for people.

It is our fundamental belief in the power of hope that has allowed us to rise above the voices of doubt and division, of anger and fear that we have faced in our own lives and in the life of America.

Americans are not used to being bombed in their beds, but if you come from anywhere outside America, it's not highly unusual.