I work on words quite separately to music. They're both ongoing, and I don't ever feel like I'm working in a cycle in that respect, because it's ever….

When a poem might become a song, then certain parts are repeated and might become a refrain or a chorus, so they change in that way. But it's more th….

I've always been very politically interested from a very young age and I hadn't felt that was something I could begin to bring into my songwriting be….

What Rare [albom] allows me to do is gonna show people other things that I'm capable of 'cause they really haven't heard a lot of things outside of t….

I don't hold onto anything, because it's a waste of energy to do so, really. There's nothing that I can do about the way people want to write about m….

When I write - I always write on my own - I demo those songs on a four-track..

It varies, I don't think there is any one set way of writing songs or coming up with ideas, it comes in so many ways you know..

Obviously, the emotions I want to convey through music are streamed through the way I interpret life..

With songs I almost see the images, see the action, and then all I have to do is describe it. It's almost like watching a scene from a film, and that….

Most of the stuff that I do talk about, about being counted out and being an underdog, 'cause that's what I feel like I am..

You go back and look at some of the ancient writings that exist throughout the world about wars and it's the same; the human beings' articulation of ….

As far as in my adult life, it kinda started (with) writing first 'cause I went to school in Nashville. I mean, not Nashville but close to Nashville,….

I think I just speak on what the regular people are going through outside of love 'cause, of course, there's always gonna be a love song, but there's….

I don't think that much anymore in terms of 'write a record, record a record, tour a record,' because in my own mind, things have changed, in that I'….

My father is actually a quarry man - he deals in stone. He also at one point had a lot of sheep, he owned a sheep farm, but primarily the family busi….

But huge photographs of dead bodies are slightly different. I couldn't find much humor there..

I come from an art-school background, and I still feel that in my music, it's about exploration and challenging myself, about putting myself in a pla….

If I ever meet a writer or a painter, I don't presuppose that they are like the work they are presenting..

I long ago learned that you can't expect people to interpret the songs in the way they had meant for you, as the writer..

I'm a very private person, so obviously I don't enjoy talking about more personal matters. But at the same time I care very much about my work and I ….

I've so much left to explore, it's enormously exciting to me. It's a passion. I just try and get better at what I do, and I study it very hard, like ….