I became at peace with the darkness or the personality that I have. I am usually pretty funny and happy.

You gotta lean towards the things that make you like yourself. Forget everything else.

It is the melody and the rhythm that are by far the most important and then words and imagery and stuff, story bits will start to stick to a melody and that is the way I write.

I drink wine on stage to sort of loosen my grip on reality a little.

My parents know that I have always been sort of a dark melodramatic kid, so they were never concerned.

A song is a song and, if I am emotionally connected to do it, whether it is sad or not sad, I am going to chase that song.

I don't want somebody telling my daughter who she can marry, or what she can do with her body. That's what was at stake.

Maybe because I have spent too much of my life in rock clubs. I don't really go to parties anymore either. I'll usually be in the bus by 11:30 after a show.

I actually don't go to shows anymore. Rock concerts have lost their appeal for me.

Live on coffee and flowers. Try not to worry what the weather will be.

Not all the songs are real events, but I do write about stuff that is close to my heart and it comes out one way or another.

I wasn't sure if it was safe for me to be sharing time and space with other people, who all seemed so much gentler and safer and less of a secret to themselves than I felt I was.

We cannot afford to let the ideas of our young generation go untapped or unbacked.

The rich think this land is theirs though they have never earned the right to call it theirs.

IF I can do it and you can do it, if I have a story and you have story.

For me life is a challenge. And it will be a challenge if I live to be a hundred or if I get to be a trillionaire.

Even as a stage performer, I have my garb which is leather jackets and black jeans to make me feel a certain way. The wardrobe is really important to feeling the character you're playing.

You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.

When you write on your own, you can write the extremes. No one else is watching and you can really go as far as you need to.

There are gems of thought that are ageless and eternal.

I am one of the haunted.