When I find a cover song that I like, I'll work away at it until I kind of believe that I wrote it..

I'm very parasitic, from my own experiences. I just go and mine my dirty laundry, you know, and go through it until I find something that's interesti….

Stephen Sondheim told me that Oscar Hammerstein believed everything that he wrote. So there's great truth in the songs, and that's what was so wonder….

When you go on tour and see everyone, you're like, "Oh my god. This is actually real life." That inspires me to write more songs..

I find it much easier to write comic-books than lyrics actually because it's a natural dialogue. Writing song lyrics is not natural but over the year….

There are things that inform the works, but that doesn't go anywhere near what you're actually looking at..

We'll only be playing four new songs live, but all the material for the next album is basically finished..

I was trained as a straight dramatist..

I had a dream that Louis Armstrong was playing the 'Swept Away' melody. I have no idea where it came from. But Louis Armstrong was playing it and sin….

Nothing makes me happier than writing a song that I think is good or that I want to play. Writing songs helps me..

I love all of our subpodcasts..

Whenever I heard the song of a bird and the answering call of its mate, I could visualize the notes in scale, all built up within my consciousness as….

I don't want to be somebody who stands still and sings pretty. Each song is a world. Each song is a story. I don't achieve nearly what I want..

I'm not the kind of guy who sits around at home and writes songs. Once in a while I'll pick up a guitar and noodle around, but it's rare..

Janis Joplin didn't just sing a song, she took it over. She swallowed it whole, then sent it back through her gut and her heart..

I sometimes suffer from insomnia and one of the first times it ever happened I was like, "I don't know what to do with myself," so I started writing ….

8th grade I started writing my own songs. They weren't good songs or anything, but it was always the song writing aspect of things that was important….

I'd probably be a super wealthy guy if I had sat around writing songs and getting them placed like everyone else I know. But I write songs about peop….

Someone like John Prine can write a song that tears into your soul, turn it over, and write a song that makes you laugh and feel light as a feather. ….

I like to do cover songs if I really love them, I have to love the song first..

We haven't truly had a zeitgeisty, 'songs on the radio' show, since...I want to say "One Night in Bangkok" was the last musical theatre song that cha….