Shoes are everything. You can tell more about a man from his shoes than his handshake, because they tell where you're going.

I'm a pretty private person.

The first time I heard 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais,' I loved the vulnerability in the music and the lyrics.

I like building houses, working as a carpenter, painting. You work with your hands to the best of your ability, and at the end of the day, you go home with some satisfaction: 'I built that!'

I do find that I tend to write about big questions. Why are we here? What are we doing? How do we relate to each other?

I must've been about 7 or 8 when I realized I wanted to perform in some way.

I sure wish I'd written 'One' by U2.

I don't envy anybody else's career because I feel they've earned where they're at and worked hard. I wouldn't mind Jack White's gig, though. He does it all!

Everyone should see 'A Nightmare Before Christmas,' hear 'London Calling,' and read 'Great Expectations.'

When you finish a record, I look at it like a photograph. It's already taken. You got it the way you wanted it to be. You edit it, make sure the light and contrast are right, then you just put it away, and that's your photograph. Then you don't really think about it anymore.

A lot of people get writer's block, and I think you just have to show up for work, sit down, and be like, 'I'm here.' You have to stay confident and positive that you're going to write something.

When you label something a singer-songwriter record, you cover many genres.

If you're just making a record to pay the bills, that's not a great idea because chances are it might not come out that good.

When 'American Slang' came out, everyone was like, 'This is the next big band in the world, and this is blah blah blah Bruce Springsteen Junior and blah blah blah,' and I was just like, 'I don't know what that means. I don't know. We'll see.'

Too many bands record an album and feel, 'Well, this is okay,' but after a time, they grow to not like it.

You just have to know your story from the beginning. You have to know what you're going for and be honest with people about that. Don't sit there and say you're gonna be a DIY punk band for your whole life and then move on to arenas; you can't do that because then people don't trust you anymore.

I would love to learn how to paint motorcycles and stuff like that. I really, really am fascinated by that.

I can't sit still for long and need creative outlets and think you should try different things. I mean, if you're a musician all of your life, you gotta try different things. I really believe you can have it all.

That's how I would describe myself, persistent.

I just like a good song, it doesn't matter. I mean, I am into girl groups and stuff like that. I listen to anything.

We come from that school where we don't believe we're different from you, and it's insulting to me on some kind of weird level that musicians are put on a pedestal.

I did the coffee house thing - we have coffee houses where people play, or we used to - and when I was 14, I started there. Just played all the time. Every weekend I had a show, or every Thursday. Open-mic nights, the whole thing.

The Clash will always be from London, and we will always be from New Jersey. But New Jersey doesn't create us.

I don't go to rock bars. Why would I go to rock bars? I can do that every night; it's boring.

Where I live, every band ever comes through, and you can see anything you want, pretty much.

I don't like it when people spout about the popular opinion just to make it louder.

I think some people don't even know what they're talking about, and they just start talking with an opinion, not even asking questions.

Tom Waits is someone who has really struck me, ever since I was a kid. He's really a big deal for me.

It's always Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Waits for me - the big three.

I think I lose myself in interviews sometimes.

If you asked me to make a Gaslight Anthem album on my own, I would say, 'No way, that's crazy.' I would never have been able to do that.

We built something very special with Gaslight, and we don't want to mess with that sound too much. But I've always wanted to do a record where I can put strings or organs or pianos or whatever on it.

It's all about knowing your audience. When I buy a record by a band and it sounds completely different, I'm just like, 'Why didn't you change your band name?'

When you're older, you realize a little bit more hard truths. You are who you are. And the people that like you, they like you for being you.

I like movies and radios and Bruce Springsteen and New Jersey. That's what I like, and if people don't like that, well, literally you can go on iTunes, and there's hundreds of other bands you can listen to.

I learn tons of John Frusciante's licks from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm never going to play like the Chili Peppers, but I might use that if I've got a dub beat or reggae thing mixed with a soul thing.

I don't want to be a lead player. I don't want to shred and play fast licks. I just want to be the best rhythm section ever.

When I first started fingerpicking, the first thing I learned was 'Don't Think Twice It's Alright' from Bob Dylan.

I was never a fan of open tunings, because some people will do that and fumble around. But that's not my jam.

As I've gotten older, I've realized the element that sounds like The Gaslight Anthem that's mine is always going to be me. The other three-fourths of it is going to be the other guys. I can't stop doing what I do naturally, whether I'm in The Gaslight Anthem or my own thing.

I've spent my life playing music.

The piano is where everything starts and ends. Everything is based off of it. If you understand that, you wind up understanding a lot more in all other instruments. For me, it had always been something important to try and learn.

You never get away from that thing in your hometown that it has over you. You don't outgrow where you come from.

There are two things that matter when you're making music. First, that you're doing what you love, even if it's crazy and other people tell you it's crazy. The second thing is the only people you really need to worry about are the people who love your music, not the people who speak badly about it.

I'd like to say I don't care, but I do. 'Cause when you put out a record, you try to do it for yourself first, and you want your audience to accept it, but you also want the press to accept it, too, because it validates what you do.

I'm from New Jersey, the Shore, and Asbury Park and all that goes with that. I wouldn't want to mess around with that. I like New Jersey. There are nice people here.

When you write a lot of songs, sometimes you don't have a place for them, and you need an outlet for them.

You can't staple me to the Brooklyn hipster. I don't buy skinny jeans and $50 T-shirts. I wear the same clothes I've always worn, from Target.

I spend my money on cars. That's why I have a Challenger. It's a muscle car, like a Mustang. It's big and rumbly.

Gaslight Anthem's thing is its power. It's just like boom and explosions and loud, and play with everything you got.