I read books all the time, I'm always reading. I'm not like somebody that reads really fast or a lot or anything, but I always have a book that I'm reading.

This is what I wanted to do from the very beginning: write songs and make records and tour them with a good live band.

The fact that I have a lot of songs written doesn't keep me from wanting to write new ones, or new ones from coming.

I don't feel like I'm half as important as Elliott Smith or Kurt Cobain. And I'm not going to be somebody that became so unhappy that he succumbed.

There's enough adverbs in the world for you to start creating new ones.

I like the songwriting. I don't ever listen and then go back and change stuff. For me when I wrote the song, it's always really fun and exciting.

I can watch a movie about a person that can make me feel depressed or remind me of something else, and then later on I'll get an idea for a song.

I tend to like to write a song and then think about it for a while. I record a demo of it and then put it away and wait until I've gotten more thoughts on it or get sure exactly how to approach it.

I think music is a spiritual way to communicate transcendental things.

A lot of times, magazines end up presenting me as some type of weirdo, but I make my music for everyday people.

I'm not making any money, but I view it as some sort of investment, or like buying myself a great present.

A successful person is often one who has failed more than most.

We have completely eradicated smallpox; we have almost eradicated polio. That's the miracle of vaccines, which is even greater than that of antibiotics.

The amount of relief and comfort experienced by the sick after the skin has been carefully washed and dried, is one of the commonest observations made at a sick bed.

Pressure... I love it.

When will conventional good manners become attractive? When will ladies of fashion exhibit their shoulders a little less and their affability and wit a little more?

I cant justify taking money away from hungry kids and needy schools to pay for the Games when corporations are willing to write the checks.

Do not forget this: the Lord never wearies of forgiving! We are the ones who weary of asking for forgiveness.

Do what we can, summer will have its flies.

You can love a person deeply and sincerely whom you do not like. You can like a person passionately whom you do not love.

O call not me to justify the wrong, That thy unkindness lays upon my heart, Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue, Use power with power, and slay me not by art.