My songs aren't built around choruses or hooks or anything like that. That's kind of how I write screenplays too..

Every song that I play I wrote by myself..

If you're up on a stage, naked and solo and singing songs to people, there's not much place to hide, so you may as well confess what you want to conf….

I'm a lover of songs..

It's not that I have resisted songwriting, it's just not something I felt I have had to do. I've just not woken up and thought, I must do this. But I….

I came in with a completely new perspective. I would write songs and they would pick tunes they felt were in the Purple vein..

If you write great songs with meaning and emotion, they will last for ever because songs are the key to everything..

Domesticity is the enemy of art. I don't know if that's true. You can write good happy songs. So, I don't think it's necessarily happiness. But I thi….

I hate negative songs; I won't sing them. It doesn't matter if it's sold 2 million more albums..

I'm an actor. I'm not a performer. I'm not like a song and dance guy who can take a cane and a hat and do it. I would just you know. That's why I nev….

During my sabbatical, I spent two years not listening to my songs at all..

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees..

I'm definitely seeing more and more new people at shows, which is exciting. It's nice for me, because it's a fresh start. I don't feel as obligated t….

I suppose that it doesn't matter whether a song is written or sung by a man or a woman. If the sentiment is there, it captures the audience..

An audience will let you know if a song communicates. If you see them kind of falling asleep during the song, or if they clap at the end of a song, t….

The reason you write [songs] is because there's something you want to say that is important to you - enough to go through all the torture of writing..

Being a songwriter does not rely on an audience or other band members or a camera. I can just sit in a room and write songs..

One look at love and you may see it weaves a web over mystery, all ravelled threads can rend apart for hope has a place in the lover's heart. ….

A good song deals with the human condition, and the truth of the human condition..

Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers..

I like clever songs. I like songs that make people think and I try to have substance in all my records, even with 'Sweet Dreams' how it was a club re….