I wouldn't call it a faux pas, but I have about 12 tracksuits. I always travel in a tracksuit. I feel it makes people happy when they see me.

Maybe love won't let you down. All of your failures are training grounds and just as your back's turned, you'll be surprised... as your solitude subsides.

I think life is the most important thing and you have to live that first and then you're art comes second.

I think you kind of lose the human aspect when you make things too perfect.

As hard as I try to sound tough and dark, I still sound cute.

I'm a control freak with regards to certain aspects. I think you just have to be when you're making stuff in the world. You have to have a clear idea what you want.

I write music, really, to make myself feel better.

Whenever I have a bunch of tunes written, I always find a kind of uniform that accompanies the songs.

I tend to work well within a deadline. If I know I have to get something in three weeks, I tend to A, enjoy myself a little bit more, and B, really work well.

If you wanna get to heaven, get out of this world.

I grew up on Loretta Lynn and Dusty Springfield. I remember lying about it it wasn't cool to listen to country when I was 12.

Fiction with its big question of 'what if?' is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Once upon a time, the ability to light a fire was fictitious.

The highlight of my career? That's easy, Elvis recording one of my songs.

My books flow. People say they pick them up and they can't put them down. It's because when I'm writing them I pick my pen up and I cannot put my pen down.

I was born an American, I live like an American, I will die an American.

I used to wonder how a man of birth and spirit could endure to be wholly insignificant and obscure in a foreign country, when he might live with lustre in his own.

Those who are the most happy appear to know it the least; happiness is something that for the most part seems to mainly consist in not knowing it.

Just what you want to be, you will be in the end.

Your 'Pringle' contains 30% potato, that yoghurt has the same amount of sugar as ice cream, that whole grain cereal bar may be no better for you than a snickers.

The vanity of men, a constant insult to women, is also the ground for the implicit feminine claim of superior sensitivity and morality.

However strong or beautiful this body may be, its culmination is in those three pounds of ashes. And still people are so attached to it. Glory be to God.