The reason I stop playing songs is usually because I get sick of them, and then they find themselves back into the set list at some point..

I have manic energy. What can be done about it? I don't know what to say sometimes. I'm professional in public, but I like to stay inside and be a he….

In many ways, I've chosen to be plain, almost too plain, too self-effacing. Like, if I record a vocal and I don't like the way it sounds, I would hav….

I'm not really a strange person or anything, so if there's music I like, usually there's other people who like it too..

The less I talk in bars, write emails, express myself in an emotionally lewd way outside of my songwriting, the more I have to do it through my music..

I don't leave my neighborhood. I don't go anywhere. There are four blocks I live in and there are two coffee shops, one at each end of the block... s….

My job is to be some sort of music/lyric psychic, to figure out that that's the right song to not fight the lyric..

I think a lot of good directors listen to music while they're working. The songs just don't become a part of the film. They're replaced..

If I'm in a relationship and my girlfriend is sleeping with other people, I don't need to know who it is; I just want to know how she feels about it..

White people don't sing together very often, and when they do, it's about the celebrity of the song. The singing at my shows is all about harmony..

You never know when you put out an album that's unique whether it'll get beat up for it or not..

I used to do this big rant at the end of some gigs with Ben Folds Five. The band broke into this big heavy metal thing and I started as a joke to scr….

A lot of 18-year-olds are like old men. They think they've seen everything..

If you're afraid they might discover your redneck past, there are a hundred ways to cover your redneck past..

I could probably live in Bali the rest of my life and completely live in the sticks and have a f - king moped and make a record every couple of years….

You can't really control how people hear stuff. It's hard to remember that. I have to let go of it..

I divorce myself from listeners who aren't tolerant of humor. I did notice universally that, especially when it comes to weight, people look in the m….

I think people use temp music quite a bit, but the people who write the temp music don't ever really learn that their music was inspiring a movie..

Because I write very simply, but inside the simplicity, there's a lot of subtlety. That's what I'm proud of..

Rock and roll is - and should be - a kid's place..

Even though I live in America more, I feel like when I go to Adelaide, that's when I get to go home..