If I look at my own recordings, I think generally there is a focal point within the song and often it's the instrumental bridge or a guitar solo wher….

I am interested in politics but have stayed away from writing overtly political songs, or message songs, because I find it difficult to discuss polit….

We are drowning in a sea of Myspace, blather, and too much information. Music is everywhere and nowhere. The independent record store is the solution….

Writing songs does not get any easier, and that might be because I am harder on myself than I was twenty years ago. Hopefully, as we grow older and c….

It's hard to imagine the whole punk movement without The Velvet Underground. I toured with them when they did their reunion tour, and no one sounds l….

They didn't teach Nietzsche in the philosophy department at Harvard; philosophy there was strictly analytical stuff and the poetic ramblings of Nietz….

I don't pretend to understand him, but I can enjoy him as a poet and comedian. I liked the idea of the eternal return. Sometimes I think that being o….

Don't be a rock star. I've seen people around me have their lives destroyed by drugs. It just depends on what kind of person you are. Like, some peop….

One of the nice things about being in a band is that you depend on each other for ideas, so it's not all up to me to do everything myself. There's al….

I guess I could be singing about Superman, or about Zarathustra coming down from the mountain, but in my mind I was singing about Julian Assange. I w….

It's not often I get to do a film that turns out good. Plus, there just aren't that many great directors out there. There are a thousand different de….

It's weird being an author because it's different than writing songs. You put so much more of yourself out there to be judged because it's a memoir. ….

My standards are higher than they used to be, I think. They don't necessarily have to make sense, but I certainly work on them a lot harder now -- pa….

Writing a song is a long road. Or it can be..

You have to love yourself or you'll never be able to accept compliments from anyone..

It's a scary question for a musician or songwriter today - what does the future hold? It is a strange time in the music business too; it feels like w….