My biggest lesson ... was to try and create narrators that were believable. ...so the listener becomes really invested in the story or the song.

I come from a food family, so you would think that I would be great at making baked beans or something, but I'm not.

I try to spend a lot of time thinking of what it is I want to say, and how I want to say it. Mainly because I know what it's like as a fan to hear music that is just exactly what I needed.

The first time I toured the U.K. was in the early '90s with Billy Pilgrim, so I know how much the people there love music.

Music doesn't need to be perfect, but you'll know when it's right.

I have always heard that uber-successful people who write books about how to become uber-successful all have one thing in common: They all meditate every day. I consider yoga my meditation.

One of the things that defines a country song for me is that it's honest. It's not putting on a tuxedo to go eat at the Burger King. It's about a song being emotionally true to itself.

A heart has its multiple facets of daily music. Respect a genuine good heart.

Before you find the magic of life you have to open yourself up to the possibility of it being there.

[P]erhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.

Ignorance is bliss, but Enlightenment is nirvana

Just be good and kind to your children. Not only are they the future of the world, they're the ones who can sign you into the nursing home.

I don't know what's better gettin' laid or gettin' paid.

For me, comedy and drama are all the same thing.

Don't put blankets over the drum! Open completely. Let your spirit ear listen to the green dome's passionate murmur.

The promised land guarantees nothing. It is only an opportunity, not a deliverance.

A genuine quality of life comes from consistent, quality questions.