The thing for me though, is that songs are good depending on the memories I have with them.

I think if you truly believe that something should be that way then you should push for that.

Give me one good reason why I should never make a change, baby if you hold me then all of this will go away.

Truth is mighty and it will prevail.

I think one of the worst things people can do is try and fight the people they've agreed to work with.

I think the lesson that I learnt very early on was to listen to people you work with, because you're all in it together.

While I was travelling and I kind of had the classic realisation - that I guess most teenagers have at some point - that time's gonna run out and that's not in my power to change that.

I like to try and mix diction and experiences.

It's strange to think that I can go places and people want to hear my music. I guess that's all I ever wanted.

Obviously I still gig on my own, but I've always heard my music with a band.

Even if I know that really it's not a great song, even if it's a naff song but I have a good memory of it, then to me that's a great song.

Each year I host a leadership summit in my district, and my biggest advice to young people is get experience. Get your foot in the door.

I have 120 people in my payroll without any government giving me any money. We live off the tickets and the records I sell. That is very unusual.

Life is hard. And we better laugh at everything, otherwise we're going down the tube.

I suppose some people find their voice later than others, but it's interesting to look back at really early work to see that there's some kernel or a Rosetta Stone, in a way.

No matter how enormous a novel may become, the physical act of reading determines that there's no way it can become a communal experience. To read is intimate. It's almost masturbatory.

From ev'ry single window, I see your face. But when I reach a window there's an empty space.

I don't know if you've ever had just five dollars in the bank, but I've found that if that's all you have, you can't get it out.

Study the Bible like a soldier on a mission, not a scholar on a sabbatical.

Though I love the luxury of the Waldorf Towers, room service there doesn't do soul food.

I'm trying to get music ideas that come and keep them alive. It's like carrying water in your hands. I want to keep it all, and sometimes by the time you get to the studio you have nothing.