If you're going to write a song, try to get together with a collaborator because it's better to write with collaborators.

I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there's a lot to be said for that way of thinking.

I still believe that something is right only when it feels right.

If there's not love present, it's much, much harder to function. When there's love present, it's easier to deal with life.

You say how you feel, and songs don't lie. Songs are the most honest form of human expression there is--there's nothing that lies about a song.

Summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun.

I believe that music is God's voice.

The idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio...well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else.

I'm not a genius. I'm just a hard-working guy.

Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can't understand what they are saying. It's a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.

Humor - it helps to make the vibe better - it loosens up the vibrations.

Think while walking, walk while thinking, and let writing be but the light pause, as the body on a walk rests in contemplation of wide open spaces.

There is no greater love than a maker’s for the things she makes. Especially when they grow to be something she never imagined.

Stress is a form of suffering, but it is accepted as normal. And it is normal in our world.

I don't think there's a problem with people discovering the music unless there's no way to get to them. That's the problem that you always have.

You might be a redneck if The Salvation Army declines your mattress.

I think I am probably a lot like my father.

So long as the New Testament served to decipher the Old, it was taken as an absolute norm.

The notion of American exceptionalism is effective in part because there is little on the face of it that is offensive.

I have a really, really hard time sitting down and watching a TV show, except I'm apparently willing to watch the same episode of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' like, seven times.

I feel like I know a lot of music stuff that most people my age don't know, because people that were slightly older were into it.