There's going to be ups and downs and that you have to be okay with the downs too and embrace them just as much because they will teach you something.

If you make everything really on the nose so everyone knows exactly what you're talking about, it's often not as strong.

Sold my soul to the devil / for nice penmanship. / Now I write real pretty / but I'm starting to regret it.

I don't believe in the myth of the "self made man". Nobody gets through alone.

I used to be so young, how did I get so old?

You can't just look at the side of something that you want to see. You have to look at the whole round object and understand that there are parts of it that you don't like.

I think that's why art prevails: because it helps people in a fairly intangible, magical way feel more connected to each other.

I think the future and the past are equally hypothetical.

Sometimes I just don't have time to wait for the muse to come, so I've developed things to force the muse to come back.

I'm influenced in a million different ways by a million songs that I've heard and digested.

The idea that things intrinsically were just better is so stupid to me because they never were. It's all relative.

My attitude is that, if you have nothing to hide, why not show it?

So is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason - to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?

Overcoming negative tendencies and enhancing positive potential are the very essence of the spiritual path.

If lyrics make people do things, how come we don't love each other?

Your vision, ideas and plans have the power to shape the future, but not if you keep them to yourself.

The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.

I think it's an essential fact for any performer or artist to fail as poignantly as they can succeed.

Night's darkness is a bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn.

We must learn to separate need from greed...We must not allow our yearnings to exceed our earnings.

He that lives in love lives in God.