I always watched movies and rooted for the bad guys, you know? I've always been that kind of guy. I still hold some respect for criminals that are good at their jobs.

Nashville's like any other hometown - after a while, it's stifling.

I think a lot of men are afraid of pretty things, and I'm not, I like pretty songs.

As a southern man, there's two things I'm definitely not scared of: bow ties and white pants.

My parents split up when I was about 2. I realize more and more how much I'm like my father. My gentleness comes from my mother.

I didn't do anything differently than what my father was doing. It's a really hard family to rebel in. I could have become an accountant. Or I could have become a Republican.

All my records have been written to be records, rather than writing a group of songs and seeing if they fit together.

I didn't get into music to become a blues musician, or a country musician. I'm a singer-songwrit er. In my book that means I get to do whatever I want.

I've never been good at rock'n'roll songs, anyway; either I'm blessed or I'm cursed, but whatever I write comes out sounding old.

I heard Nirvana, and discovered that songs could be like poetry, but a little bit more refined: you didn't have to have 20 verses to get your point across.

I love Motown, but I've obviously always been more of a Memphis soul fan. If it's Stax or Motown, I go Stax.

The tragedy, however, is that you soon realize that the time you thought you had to fulfill the dreams had melted away before your very eyes.

Watch how your enthusiasm can light up another’s fire. This is how we wake up the world.

man can not live on chocolate .... but women can

Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.

Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert. Those are the guys I look at who are telling me pretty much the truth. And they throw humor into it which makes it much more interesting to listen to.

One of the things I enjoy most is to be left alone with a book.

I want to build a treehouse village connected by bridges in the woods by my house so my friends have a place to stay.

There's nothing like spending an evening with an audience every night.

Monet, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, Van Gogh and others went outside to paint for one simple reason - it looks different outside.

Origami Striptease reads like William S. Burroughs and Djuna Barnes howling at a brutal paper moon.