I am really pleased to hear each of my songs described as a total surprise. This is what I want!

As I've gotten older, I have gotten a lot better at finding the pleasures of making music despite the business of it.

I wanted to touch on the piece where often politicians use "god" to excuse their actions.

I always write from rhythm first, so if I need a song fast, I have to start there. Then I just threw some electric guitar at it.

Really, everything for me comes from "Manifestra." It was an incredible gift of a song; it really describes an important moment in my life.

It's funny because my main awkwardness around writing the song had little to do with the method.

The only really weird part for me was making sense of the person on the TV at the same time as the person who I am friendly with and do something so friend-intimate with as text.

So many policy decisions that effect musicians are being made without any input from musicians at all.

I like garage band for writing because you only have crayons and there are only five crayons in the box. Your choices are limited and I find that to be very good for me.

I didn't realize at the time that if I wrote about something, I was going to have to talk about something. A lot. Ad nauseum.

I learned how to have a little bit of distance when I explained songs and a little bit of distance when I wrote them. I think this is more interesting any way in art.

A man who believes everything can be explained by science is just as ignorant as someone who believes everything can be explained by religion.

I am deeply concerned with the diminution of the teaching strength of the country as a result of the disproportionately low salaries that are paid to teachers throughout the country.

I'm excited to see the growth in women's cycling, and I think the Women's Tour has had a really positive impact on that change.

The need for comprehensive reform must not blind us to the urgency of addressing the massive debt that's already crushing our young people.

An attack on the roots of passion means an attack on the roots of life.

If you just enchanted one person per day, you would make a big dent in the universe.

Children can't help but create: they need to put their mind on the page, they want to paint, to sculpt, to write short stories.

Money isn't a major motivating force in my life. Nor is my profession. There are other things that I care more about than being an actor.

You get bunches of players like you do bananas, though that is a bad comparison.

Success doesn’t always look like what we think it looks like.