To make big steps, you’ve got to take action yourself and not listen to other people.
I never felt happy with the idea that part of what I do is to be an object to be looked at. I thought of my public persona as an entity separate to myself.
Songwriting is like going to church. I’m connecting to something, and it’s rewarding in really important ways. I don’t need to share it with anyone to feel good about it.
I could make a whole album with no one else involved at all. It would be a total, unadulterated expression of myself. Because whenever you have others playing on a project, their influence becomes a part of it.
It may seem strange, but the most grateful I’ve ever felt was when I was held up at gunpoint. After I handed over my wallet and the mugger ran off into the woods, I thought, ‘Thank you for not shooting me.’ I was overwhelmingly glad to be alive and unharmed.
I don’t make money on the road, and so there’s less and less incentive for me to do it when I don’t have that adolescent desire for whatever it is, glory or fame.
My guitar playing has not developed as much as I think it could because I never practice. I only play when I’m writing or recording or when I’m playing on tour. When I’m sitting around at home, I never play.
I don’t think I’m romantic at all. I have a lot of faith in the right thing happening. I don’t really hope for a lot of particulars, I just have faith that the right thing will happen most of the time.
When I start writing, I’ll have a vague concept or I’ll just have a title, and the song just goes on its own direction. Usually it goes in many directions within each song. They get really convoluted sometimes.
Songwriting is like editing. You write down all this stuff – all this bad, stupid stuff – and then you have to get rid of everything except the very best.
You think you know who you are, and then other people have these other ideas.
How can I shield myself from the things that I hear?
If you want to achieve things in life, you’ve just got to do them, and if you’re talented and smart, you’ll succeed.
I’d just like to inspire people to be themselves and do what they want and not conform to the rigid guidelines of the music or entertainment business.
The most rabidly religious people are the most rabidly evil.
I’m just trying to get rid of all the mystery surrounding me and let people see what I’m thinking. So they can understand me and stop assuming things about me.
I’ve seen quite a bit of the world, but I really like Sweden and feel like I could live there some day.
My first guitar was a Gibson Challenger.
I’ve always been in this sort of perpetual state of existential longing. I feel like something’s missing.
I’ve always been a loner, and I’ve spent most of my life as a single person.