The earth almost looks like it's packed down and dense from so many feet treading over it.

I've done my share of busking, and it's fun until it isn't. There are musicians in the subways that will make you cry, they're so good.

I think I'm still a little too intense for my own good sometimes.

Every time I get up in the morning, melodies occur to me and I start trying to shape lyrics to melodies.

I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.

My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.

Sometimes I think I don't have much choice in the matter. It's just what happens, and I'm following my instincts the whole time.

Songwriters can sort of get away with murder. You can throw out crazy theories and not have to back it up with data or graphs or research.

All the folks I play with come from jazz backgrounds or at least appreciate spontaneity within the parameters of a pop song.

I am, in some sense, a writer. Even though I kinda downplay the word thing, I do enjoy writing sometimes.

I think when I was pretty young I got really into the tone of my instrument and I remember just playing one note for an hour to just kind of feel the resonance of the violin.

Take charge of your life and multiply it. Be in control of your life and your time!

I wondered what it would be like to be just myself all the time, but my self seemed to be far away, and made up of all sorts of things that didn't really exist.

Of all sweet passions Shame is the loveliest.

I am shocking, impertinent and insolent that's how it is.

Thou shall not steal, even by majority vote.

Give not S. Peter so much, to leave Saint Paul nothing. [Give not Saint Peter so much, to leave Saint Paul nothing.]

I think I felt like a regular kid. Growing up in New York, I never felt I was a big deal.

Anaesthesia, that's one technique: if it hurts, invent a different pain.

It's not like I'm that wildly famous that it's disrupted my lifestyle in some way.

I'm such a long-term investor, I've never really let go and celebrated what I did with the Hubble telescope.