The way I did the first album... the way I wrote 'Church'... was just to trust my instincts with the music and let it kind of do what it does.

All you have is your fire And the place you need to reach Don't you ever tame your demons But always keep them on a leash

There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

The song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love.

No masters or kings when the ritual begins [making love] There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene Only then I am human Only then I am clean

The song, to me, is about what it is to be a human, what it is to love someone as a human being, and organizations that would undermine that, and undermine the more natural parts of being a person

Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life.

When I write songs, I try to remove myself a little bit. Obviously they're very personal to me, but it feels easier if I feel like I'm writing characters.

Art and music are the vehicle for the zeitgeist.

I think humans are driven by othering people, by defining themselves by who they are not and who is different from them. Human beings are in love with othering.

Will there be a time when equality will exist? I think given human nature there will always be conflict.

There are more serious problems in life than financial ones and I've had a lot of those. I've been broke before and will be again. Heartbroke? That's serious. Lose a few bucks? That's not.

As soon as by one's own propaganda even a glimpse of right on the other side is admitted, the cause for doubting one's own right is laid.

Can words such as Orthodox, Jew, or Catholic really express some sort of exclusive personal virtues or merits?

There is something decidedly faux about the camaraderie of Facebook, something illusory about the connectedness of Twitter.

Meryl [Streep] plays the me-ish character. I love Meryl. She's totally wonderful.

All my ex's live in Texas, And Texas is the place I'd dearly love to be, But all my ex's live in Texas, Therefore I reside in Tennessee

What we do and accomplish is only the tip of the iceberg of what's possible for us.

But with woodworking, it's really sort of gratifying to be able to have an actual piece to touch, and then step back and be able to share it.

Most of those men don’t want to sleep with you,” he said in blunt rebuttal. “I reserve the right to introduce my fist to the faces of the ones who do.