We have more media than ever and more technology in our lives. It's supposed to help us communicate, but it has the opposite effect of isolating us.

Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.

We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived.

I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right.

At this point in my life I'd like to live as if only love mattered.

I'm a hopeful cynic.

People's real hopes and dreams can be distorted and misdirected and packaged until you're not sure what you really want or what you even really need.

I dressed up as a veterinarian for a Halloween costume party. I had the lab coat. I got a couple of stuffed animals for patients and put bandages on them.

My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it.

After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration.

I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished.

I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.

Love's a recurring theme through my work.

Some things remain fragments, just the lyrics and melodies or a line or two or a verse.

Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs.

I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.

I see some recurring themes: things that feel threaded together, some symbolic references, and songs about some of the big questions, like death. There are a lot of references to weather, too!

The songs are not necessarily autobiographical. A lot of songs are a combination of influences. It might be some part of my life, or something I've felt, or something somebody's told me. It all comes together.

When you feel like you've had a good show, you go backstage and you talk to yourself about it, and if you have a bad show you talk to yourself about it.

With other people, you're always swapping music. Somebody is always listening to something you've never heard. It's a great way to hear all sorts of new things.