I also wanted to make a record that was about other things than romance, yeah, after two years on the road singing all the songs from the first album, I got kind of tired of that.

I actually think sadness and darkness can be very beautiful and healing.

Lately I've been a workaholic. I'm in the studio all the time and I've helped to produce a couple of artists

My second record was all about big ideas - I was trying to make big statements about the culture, about life. I think in a certain way, I was a 27 year old kid with a guitar

I try to make sure that the Buddhism is more or less implicit in the music rather than explicit

Things come to me pretty regularly. There is never a shortage or a backlog

But I can't really say there is too much modern music that I'm blown away by at this moment

I certainly wouldn't say that my life is a disaster, but there have been moments where I've felt like that

My first two records were more energetic; Phantom Moon is subtle, quiet; so these various reactions are just something I expected

But really important, perhaps most important is the craft; how you make your record, the creation of these sonic worlds you want your listener to hear.

So I started chanting when I was nineteen, which was about twelve years ago, and it really had a huge impact on my outlook, happiness, and general creativity.

The more we nurture the planet, the better and more natural a life we'll have.

I am glad there are things in the Bible I do not understand. If I could take that book up and read it as I would any other book, I might think I could write a book like that.

Everything's plastic, we're all gonna die.

My life could have been so grim really, really grim.

If you cannot conduct yourself with propriety, give place to those who can.

The only way to get what you really want is to let go of what you don't want.

V tired to imagine giving up his proclivities. "My monster needs to get out. Especially now.

For a long period in my life - it lasted about 10 years - I had writer's block.

Love is subsequent to knowledge and to the thing known, for nothing unknown is loved.

The beginning of 1856 found me teaching in the family of a planter named Bryan, residing in Prince George County, Md., some fifteen or twenty miles from Washington.