I'm definitely preoccupied by thinking I'm just a biological thing. I want to feel that there's more, but so often I'm reminded of how we're just like baboons, basically.

I never want to listen to the songs in front of people close to me. There's an emotional honesty in that place where it's not earnest but it's vulnerable.

Music was my friend when I was a teenager, and I would inhabit and take comfort in lyrics. That's how I want to write.

I started growing roses. I enjoyed the craft of it and that they're difficult to look after; they can provide joy.

I like the fervor of religious music, the zealous aspect - that preachers can go from a conversational cadence into this passionate singing.

When you're making an album with people who made your favorite records as a rebellious teenager, it feels like you've achieved something.

You can get into a comfort zone writing lyrics, like wearing a mask. But I wanted to feel uncomfortable when I was listening back to the lyrics; I wanted to squirm.

I like simple writing. I'd rather read Hemingway than Burroughs.

I was definitely inspired by gospel music, or old-school R&B I got into some Good God gospel compilations.

I'm just worn down and weary of bands whose lyrics are cryptic and self-referential.

I'm appalled by the tendency of some rock records to perfect everything to the point where it sounds like Botox and polish it so heavily that there's no humanity left in it.

From long experience she knew that she wore her loneliness like armor. Very few people ever recognized it for what it was. To the casual observer it looked very much like arrogance. Sometimes it was.

What if I don't believe in magic, Finn?That's stupid, how can you not believe in magic, Coop? It's everywhere.

Poverty cannot be defeated unless you first defeat it in the mind.

Right words make all of us feel falsely important. Right action keeps all of us forever beginners.

You will only find everything necessary for a happy and successful life in the Promised Land of your calling.

You can only end a negotiation for peace if you begin it.

Someone asked me the other day what it feels like to see all my 'old stuff' reappearing, at long last, in digital. And I had to smile because to me it doesn't feel like 'old stuff.'

As a Christian, you ought to be less concerned about where God is bringing you out from, rather, focus on where He's taking you to.

I feel I always have to work harder, I have to impress all the time. Impress whom? With what? People say, "Just be yourself." Well, my anxiety is that people aren't going to want that.

The art of publicity is a black art; but it has come to stay, and every year adds to its potency.