I come from a place where there's a lot of musical families.

I love the sad songs with their maudlin, self-deprecating, almost funny lyrics. As an Englishman, they make a lot of sense.

Most artists never get a chance to be Picasso, but that doesn't mean you would stop painting.

The state of radio is not great. It's like playing the lottery. The chances of hitting are mind boggling slim.

I'm never worried about being upstaged. I love to have the best, most individual people come in and see if we hit on something.

For a long time I was trying to be poppier and younger. I didn't want to be on public radio or do any of that stuff for older people. Then I realized that that is exactly what I listen to.

I don't try to stop myself from becoming too personal. I just put it all out there. If anything, I try to remind myself to be as honest as possible all the time. Why hold back?

Country music was the music I was brought up on. It's the music that's closest to my heart and the music that speaks to me the most, and it's always been a big influence on my own songwriting.

Everyone's different, but it was fun for me to work with Garth Hudson. He's from 'The Band.' They are a massive influence, that was a big thrill. He's completely out of his mind.

I do think it's probably true to a certain extent that you tend to sing music that fits your voice. If you're Lou Reed, you're unlikely to become a country singer.

Even for the people in the business who are real music lovers it's really about putting things in the right boxes, and my style doesn't fit into a box.

When you write about what you dream, you become a writer.When you dream about what you write, you become haunted by a curse.

Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.

Change is an illusion because we're always at the place where any future can take us.

We don't want someone who will get 98 percent of the vote. We want someone who will get 51 percent of the vote.

Billy Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.

What we do is inherently self-centered and sort of narcissistic. It's hard to really be thinking about myself all of the time when I have a dog who needs me to be caring for him twenty-four seven.

To joy in conquest is to joy in the loss of human life.

You can expect me goin' hard, collaborating; you know what I'm sayin'?

A basic rule of baking is that, in general, it's almost impossible to make an inedible batch of brownies.

Can you blame me if I am pursued by the thought of how much we could do to remedy social evils, if only we had an honest and disinterested press?