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

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.

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.

Children respect discipline. They want to be guided. It gives them a sense of belonging, a sense of security.

I wish you couldn't figure me out, but you'd always want to know what I was about

I win by means of nothing but logic and I surrender to nothing but logic. I do not surrender my reason or deal with men who surrender theirs.

The right vision to a wrong person is like the right seed to wrong soil.

What adjective can be used for a nation who is consistently fooled, recurrently deceived by the crafty politicians? Goofy? Very light! Fool? Not enough! Brainless? Yes, that is the very adjective!

Without courage all other virtues lose their meaning.

Invest in great relationships, they will pay a lifetime of dividends.

President Bush says he now wants to simplify the tax code. Only those in the blue states will pay.

There are a hell of a lot of jobs that are scarier than live comedy. Like standing in the operating room when a guy's heart stops, and you're the one who has to fix it!

The saddest day of the year is the day baseball season ends.