I'm not really a goal-oriented guy. I started doing the Mountain Goats just for the sheer hell of it.

You can get really good reads on your dreams if you think of every character in them as actually being you.

There are only two stories: either you go forward or you die.

Life is hard, you're tired, and there's disease. The strategy that works for children is to be delighted by the things that delight you.

People talk about songwriting or comedy as creative expression, but life is creative expression. Table-making, even nursing, is extraordinarily creative.

Good things never last, bad things never die.

One way you can get really close to God is to sin as hard as you can.

I am at a place in my life where the more like a cave I can make my surroundings, the happier I am.

I seem to get the best work when I'm angry and depressed and alienated.

It usually happens that I have multiple different projects going on at once, and one can be referencing the other.

A bands first albums usually not great. When you made the first album, you had a day job and you were still trying to be serious about it.

The first part of my career, how I was paying the bills was commercials. I was just doing tons of commercials.

Success ... seems to be connected with action.

Maybe we need to re-engage our smart, energetic youth around the world to be farmers and find fresh, green technologies that will feed the world more fresh greens.

If the rhythm section is really swinging it's such a great feeling - you just want to laugh!

Sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, and love belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality.

I've done the Rolling Stones eating each other.

How can I go out there and create value?

Recast your current problems into proactive goals.

I grew up playing sports. There is a clear line between success and failure.

My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench.