I write songs to turn myself into something else. And then I become that, and I want to become something else.

Strangely, I feel that I become increasingly reclusive in my normal life and more open and candid in my music.

I make mistakes. I say stupid things. I do idiotic things. And, quite frankly, I'm proud of them. Why not make mistakes?

I realize that of all people, I am no expert on parenting or marriage.

Sometimes I dress like what I want for lunch, because all I can think about is having a tuna sandwich.

I was brought up in many different cultures, moving around all the time, and I find my identity in my songs. I project the identity I want to have throughout the songs that I write.

When you're not part of a club, you have to find another way of surviving.

I have opinions on everything. I'm a stubborn old mule. The biggest problem is keeping my mouth shut.

The stage is my territory, my boxing ring. That's where I'm free.

I say I have a midlife crisis every time I start and finish a record.

You can only get over your fears if you attack them head on.

Live life with great humility.

[I]t is that we are too apt to despise what appears to be neither good nor beautiful, and thus we lose what is helpful and salutary.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.

A thousand people will stop smoking today. Their funerals will be held sometime in the next three or four days.

Hath any wronged thee? be bravely revenged; slight it, and the work is begun; forgive it, and it is finished; he is below himself that is not above an injury.

I feel like one of God's chosen people, having had the opportunity to share, with many fine companions, these varied and lovely realms of our natural world.

One has to live with the ignominy of a garish sticker slapped over one's face, proclaiming '?

The administration needs to speak honestly with the American people. Exaggerating our progress in defeating the insurgency or in creating an Iraqi army paints a dangerous picture.

We are the accidental result of an unplanned process ... the fragile result of an enormous concatenation of improbabilities, not the predictable product of any definite process.