Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I love Led Zeppelin!
I'm going to name my daughter Emily.
'No Burden' is not necessarily ferocious.
'Night Shift' is the only breakup song I've ever written.
It seems like there's a real world for new ideas in Philly.
I don't retain facts very well when it comes to music history.
I think in 'No Burden' there was a lot of positivity on the record.
I just feel like you're being realistic if you can laugh at yourself.
I don't even drink coffee. I try to avoid becoming reliant on any substance.
Headliners, no matter the genre, usually are a person or band who has an ethos.
My mom is an elementary-school music teacher. For her, music is an educational tool.
The phrase 'no burden' largely captured what I wish people believed about themselves.
I was always writing. I've always been attracted to words and stories, communication.
It's true that no child is born knowing there's an evil thing. You learn what is ugly.
The media, and how we're taught to read it, has a huge impact on who we become as people.
A breakup is a state of mind that needs encouragement and needs hopeful, forward thinking.
If you can come out from under pain, why wouldn't you? You definitely can. There's no question.
I think a lot about my obsessive need to document things and what it's going to mean in the future.
That's my main complaint with Murakami: that he writes these complex males and then really static women.
Every breakup is preceded by a bad relationship. So breakups should be cause for celebration and triumph.
I never considered a career in music because it was too unattainable. I just didn't believe it was possible.
My favorite music is when the sound is supplementing the message. I don't think it's dramatic; it's cinematic.
It's important for me to write songs that feel good to sing every night and remind me of my core, truest beliefs.
I really believe in hopefulness and respect people that are hopeful. I think I'm at my best when I think hopefully.
I will say it is funny that writing a song about not wanting to entertain people is what got me a career in entertainment.
I called it 'Historian' because I feel like most of my creative efforts are efforts to capture something or to document it.
Speaking and singing were equally common in my house. I started songwriting about the time that I started forming sentences.
I always wrote songs. Elementary school, middle school. It didn't feel more creative than speaking. It was just normal to do that.
Negativity, in general, is one of the things that holds people back, and you have to see what's holding you back to get away from it.
Before I even pick up a guitar, usually the words are done. So I'm not first and foremost a musician. I'm first and foremost a writer.
My dad plays guitar in the church band, so it's like music as a service. He plays at old-people homes, so that's like music as a gift.
Hopefully when you listen to a song, you can say, 'That's me,' or 'That's someone I know' - you relate to it in a way that's cathartic.
Even if somebody wanted to tell me what one of my songs meant to him or her, I can't do it - I would be probably put to tears every time.
There is no 'stop' - there's always 'go' on both sides: always keep writing, always keep recording. I don't find them to be segmented processes.
I'm not a big risk-taker - being bad just wasn't worth my time or the risk of having the consequences for it. So maybe I'm a little bit lame for that.
Usually, I'll just be walking from my house to somewhere else, and melodies and words will start coming up, and I'll have to run home to write it all down.
Humans are fascinated with communication. I was always drawn to words and stories, staying in touch with your feelings and being open to what's around you.
You have to laugh at things in order to let them be what they truly are. Because nothing is only sad. Nothing is only funny. There's context to all of those things.
I hear a lot of artists become kinda self-referential, and a lot of people that tour a lot tend to write about the perils of being on the road later in their careers.
For a while, I called myself an agnostic, which was me wanting to maintain a connection to the culture I was raised in while also undercutting a lot of the beliefs I had.
Music was always encouraged as a passion and a hobby, but I was never told, 'This should be your job. You write music and record for a living.' It doesn't happen for people.
I've been adjusting to what it means to be a songwriter, figuring out what I like about it and what I don't like about it and what it means to me as opposed to other people.
Film is like sculpture, writing, acting, technical arts, all sorts of arts. And that's why I wanted to do it for so long, because it would include so many places for attention.
I haven't studied history - I couldn't give a discourse in medieval literature - but I am a personal historian, and I do a lot to take in the histories of the people around me.
There's a lot of art that's about loss and sadness, but I would love it if hopefulness were more of a cliche. That's the work that always sticks with me and emboldens me in life.
Being on tour, it's really easy to stop knowing people that you want to know, because you're not sharing experiences; you're not existing in the minor moments of somebody's life.
I was adopted, and so was my mom. And so I just was in tune with how life can be intentional. I feel like maybe that helped me to not feel super entitled to a lot of things as a kid.
I don't have any weird gimmicks. I do put on lipstick for the show. That's what separates it. 'Cause I don't wear makeup at all... That's probably the closest thing I have to a routine.
I can't imagine being in a tour bus. It would be nice, but I think it costs $30,000 a week to rent. And I can't imagine spending what many people make in a year on a vehicle for one week.
I would not say that my relationships are becoming shallow; if anything, some of them are really being tested in a way that I'm so thankful for my friends that call me and still want to talk.