I know so many people think my music is quite influenced by Animal Collective, but honestly I think maybe the factor is that we're both influenced by the same stuff.

I'm tired of watching attractive people trying to be ugly, struggling for authenticity. Why not be yourself?

Everything I do is 100% automation, which means I'm just doing it live.

What could be more experimental than me writing a straight up love song?

When I go on a nostalgia trip it's not aesthetic. For me it's about trying to recapture the smell or the feeling of something that I've experienced in the past personally.

I don't know if I have any real aspirations to be an actor. It was just something I was asked to do in sort of a friend way. And I thought, Why not?

I always write the first and last song of an album first, and then the middle just kind of happens.

When young groups put out albums, they're always forced to go through this cycle of touring and talking and flaunting and posturing and peacocking. Nobody makes me do that anymore.

The Internet nowadays is all sensationalism, and it's just terrifying when you're actually experiencing it as a person.

I don't think you should make music to make music, just to show that you can. That's the opposite of vitality.

I'm obsessed with five different things a day. It's like lightbulbs in a Christmas light chain.

I am a writer, I'm supposed to be intense and emotional,

Paradise is a state of being, more than just the name of a suburb or a home.

I don't want to dress up a picture with just my face.

I've been successful in different areas, but nothing brings a smile to my face more than my oldest son, Zaire, and my second son, Zion, saying the kind word of 'Dad.'

At Age 11, I used to listen to Madonna's Immaculate Collection every day

That thing you had to force yourself to do-the actual act of writing-turns out to be the best part.

Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.

The Rosary is the book of the blind.

I write songs about my own experiences. You can't lie to yourself. You can't pose to yourself.

It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on memory alone.