When it's time to write a new song, anything that you thought you understood last time is pretty much pulverized.

I try not to think about the drums themselves. If I do, I'll end up hitting myself in the head with a drumstick, or sustaining some weird injury.

I'm a rock-and-roll drummer, so my job is to create chaos.

I have music in my head; I can't help it. You can put a gun to my head and it's not going to go away. The privilege is that I'm not being prevented from following that.

I'm not unswayed by the opinions of others. I actually really value that, the idea that you can feel things the way somebody else might feel them is a really big part of doing music for me.

What most people call "chaos" is actually incredibly predictable and maddeningly boring - greed, close-mindedness, warring over power.

There's part of me that feels a privilege not to do music, but to do what everybody should be allowed to do, which is to do what you're driven to do.

It's weird to me to even say, "I wrote this song." I never feel like I wrote it; I feel like I heard it.

I've found that writing and playing music has so little to do with will, and so much to do with just finding what's there waiting for you.

It's very heartening to see people who I used to do music with still doing it.

That's one of the things that always grabbed me about rock music: There's a song, and you know how it goes, and you can sort of predict it, but a lot is left up to chance and interaction.

A man without words is a man without thought.

A good problem is something you don't know how to solve. That's what makes it a good puzzle and a good opportunity.

You don’t want to get to the top of the ladder only to find out you had it leaning up against the wrong wall.

When you stop worrying about your shortcomings, you deny your enemies, rivals, and/or competitors lethal weapons they may use to attack and defeat you.

Lawyer acted without authority from our band. He had no right to sell the Wallowa country.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

Greatness is a lot of small things done well.

Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.

I'm not biting my fingernails. I'm biting my knuckles. I finished the fingernails months ago.

As soon as you think you know someone else's truth better than they do, you are in deep water.