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Most of us don't spend any time knowing ourselves. We just keep reacting.
I've been performing on stage since I was six years old.
Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous, there's really nothing to lose. There's no wrong you can't make right again, so be kinder to yourself, you know, have fun, take chances. There's no bounds.
I haven't really changed musical direction, but broadened my influences.
It's the people that had the dream in the '60s that wasn't manifested. They became disillusioned. And we're raised with their hopelessness, in some degrees, and their materialism.
I have a sneaking suspicion that all religions lead to the same place, a very unified place.
The show is different every night, because I never write a setlist.
I hope kids can be inspired by that and then focus back on their own life.
I'm not a wild and crazy person.
I'm very socially and politically conscious. It seems to be in my blood. I think it's in most people's blood.
I felt I was able to have an impact on people who came to my shows, and make a difference, even if it was 100 people.
I grew up doing live tours and playing in bars, so it was what I love to do.
Sometimes I'll have nights where I really don't feel like doing a song. It could be one of the hits or it could just be a song that I've been doing a lot lately.
I tour hard and I work hard and I come home.
I never realised fantasy writing could be as scientific and as smart.
I grew up singing with my dad and he never believed in a setlist.
So then, on top of that, we don't have any spiritual leaders. We don't trust religion. We don't trust politicians, and we're given drugs and sex and television to pacify us.
I tend to eat what I want, which probably isn't good.
I'm not a partygoer.
I tried to make a book that showed a lot of my early writing as well as some of my later writing, so kids wouldn't be alienated from it.
When I was in my van and the labels came to me, I almost didn't do it.
I love playing big rooms. There's nothing like it. It's a power trip.
Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself.
I'm fairly specific about what I like to wear and looks are important to me, just like they are to everybody.
I'm not a real sensational person.
I like David Gray a lot and recently I've been getting into The Cure (years too late, I know). I like Michelle Branch a lot, too.
I don't see the world unless I see it in ink.
Since I don't need to have money or be famous, I wouldn't do it unless it really suited my vision. Luckily I got that.
If I'm a phenomenon, it makes me feel like I have no purpose.
I was just 19 and learning how to write songs and play guitar.
I'm not killing myself for something I don't really love.
On my own I generally have very messy hair, wear jeans and sneakers.
As I remember my passion, people remember their own. The opportunity to do a lot of good is very available to me.
What's great about music is it takes so many kinds of people, including me. Everybody is in a different place.
My fans are very well-researched and bootlegged and they know some very obscure stuff, so they just tend to request songs.
I find you get out of people what you put into them.
I love singing. It's a very natural thing for me to do.
There are two reasons you can have this job. One is because you wanna be famous and the other is because you like the craft.
I never found much comfort in overly organized religion of any sort.
I was never taught about my emotions. How to understand what I was feeling? How to understand the affect of other people on me emotionally, and what that made me create in my relationships?
I love to see people try and taking risks.
I don't exist without writing.
But I think fans get to know me better playing solo. I think I enjoy not having any constraints, being able to do whatever I like.
I've been pretty lucky that I've never really been in the gossip columns and never been a tabloid sensation.
love being in a band.
I think when kids just see well-crafted poetry, it's just obtuse to them. It's hard to relate to.
When I got a book deal with my publisher, they wanted a semi-biography, but I told them I wouldn't do that unless I could also do a book of poetry.
I guess, yeah, I prefer doing solo.
The writers I respect the most had an undying commitment to a vision.
You have a different crowd every night, so you should do a different show to suit them. I tailor the show to their mood.
No publisher is interested in putting out a book of poetry, because poetry has been dead to the youth of America for quite some time. But I really felt like there was a place for it.
But I love playing electric guitar.
I would always encourage people of any age not to be so quick to follow other people's truths but to search and follow your own moral code and live by your own integrity, and mostly just be brave.
I wanted the opportunity to be able to sing around the country for myself and other people.
I think, because I sing a song differently every night, it keeps me interested.
Music touches people. It makes you feel that other people understand what you are going through.
I'm not that interested in somebody being dramatically perfect.
The craft can come once you get an interest in poetry, but I was trying to show kids it is a vital form and can be really captivating and intrigue you.
Gossip is gossip, and when you just try and rebut it, it makes a bigger thing of it.
I used to work out a lot more and eat a lot less and spend a lot more time getting into shape.
Only once, when I was very young, I got hiccups before going on stage and was nervous about that because I thought I wouldn't be able to sing the songs.
So what are we given? We're also given, my generation, the disillusionment of our parents.
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