Rock stardom and all that stuff like that was never like my main M.O., my main M.O. is musical growth, and if I become a rock star in the process, great!

I'm not financially insecure anymore either so I don't have to sit there and get on the latest Poison tour just to make money, which is what a lot of them are doing.

The main thing is that I've been studying composition for the last four years. I'd say it's the life experience combined with the lessons that enabled me to go much further.

Throughout the years I have tried to hone my skills to gain mastery over the music in my head.

I'm a child of the 70's; influenced mostly by albums that had a wide variety of style.

I play piano and guitar. Acoustic guitar. I tried studying classical guitar when I was 16 but it got really hard. I could never play a lead to save my life.

I was just going more for what I've always been influenced by, European music.

I'd like to tour, but again, to tour my music now would take a bigger band.

I could play everything but could never take a lead. My brain just doesn't work like that.

It’s not about the elimination of fear. Rather it’s about the elimination of the feeling that the elimination of fear is necessary before we take the next step.

In order to get the worst possible first impression of Los Angeles one should arrive there by bus, preferably in summer and on a Saturday night.

The club shows are really intense and powerful, but for a shorter time, and the audiences are in close proximity than when I'm performing at The Palace Theatre.

To be great we need to win games we aren't supposed to win.

Some people think or expect that you should make the same kinds of art forever because it creates a convenient narrative... I want my work to embody my inherent contradictions.

ISIS have to be defeated. They have to be defeated militarily. How are we going to do that if we continue to weaken our military?

The shaming of Washington, insofar as it is even possible, is a very noble pursuit.

There is the melancholy of Europe. There is the romantic malaise. Feeling sad is almost a form of deepness.

I never ask myself how I do what I do. After all, how does it rain?

There is no disease more conducive to clinical humility than aneurysm of the aorta.