We don't have T-shirts with my face, but there I can see the beginnings, especially young girls seeing me as sort of a icon in that way. And in that regard I'm more than happy to step in.

It bothers me that no one has the patience to deal with someone who is just sad.

I think if I were living in a utopian world, then it wouldn't be political commentary; it would be about daffodils.

It's a strange life... you really don't know how you will impact people or how things will play out.

Being alive and understanding that and making the decision to actually live take a lot of courage.

Sometimes it's better to live through someone's work than the person themselves, and to realise that every human being is flawed, but through art they can be perfect.

I just write what comes to me. I didn't sit down and say ok, here is my statement. It's just a song that has a shout out.

Generally I try to read anything but indie rock journalism or anything about music at all, especially in the summer.

The writing process is very much like being in a dark tunnel, and you don't really know what you will end up with until you have created it.

Until the day we die, our lives are unwritten, which is sometimes a terrifying thought.

It's not my fault that people are perverts.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

There's only one thing worse than being sick...and that's being sick and poor.

Once the blinders are off, it's rather hard to go back to seeing things the way you used to.

Start off each day with a song.

When I was a little kid I thought I would grow up to be black and sing jazz in nightclubs.

I'm not sure that my upbringing has in itself informed my acting choices.

History is written by the victors--and when there is no victors, it all winds up in the corporate shredders.

Occasionally I will audition for a big overseas movie, but that's it.

In order to understand life it is not only necessary not to be indifferent to men, but not to be indifferent to flocks, to trees. One should be indifferent to nothing.

‎The way you understand and investigate time is by moving inward, into metabolism. The human body is a knot in time.