I don't write songs in order to stick it to my exes. I don't release underground dis tracks.

I need some kind of emotional stake in it to write my lyrics, assuming that place. It might just be an emotion I understand but am not currently experiencing necessarily.

I'm getting to a point where everything is becoming streamlined in my life. I'm learning how to stand onstage for two hours and play in front of thousands of people as if I am completely in the moment every moment.

Hopefully people can see my music is tethered to my brain.

My fear is that I go up to the girl of my dreams and say 'I'm sorry, but I've got to say hello to you,' and she slides the stool back and gets up and walks away, saying, 'Not for me, Bub. I don't want anything to do with you.'

It's very liberating when you finally realize it's impossible to make everyone like you.

I really don't want to be a hunk.

I may have taken someone through the wringer psychologically, but I've never been sinister.

I don't want to detach. I don't want to go live in a gated community.

If you get half a million, at a certain stage you probably will get 4 million people, if they are able to hear it. The touring thing is unbelievable. It really is amazing from what we did the last tour even to what we are doing now.

Trying to impress my mother with words was one of my favourite pursuits.

I quit the media game. I'm out. I'm done.

You cannot avoid war in life, you cannot avoid the fear of terrorism, you cannot avoid those things now, they are a part of everyday demeanor.

Look, demanding somebody do anything in this day and age is not going to fly.

There are people in the world who have the power to change our values.

I'm the only person I know who's got a bunch of money.

I knew what I wanted to do when I was 13 and I had to go through four years of high school to get out. That's a blessing, because I never had to lay on my bed staring up at the ceiling going, 'What am I going to do with my life?'

I scientifically engineer my music to be as accessible as possible.

I just like collaborating.

People are really concerned with what other people are saying about them.

I wanted everybody to like me. I thought I was one shuck and jive away in every direction.

I don't have anybody telling me what to do.

My hits are not hits.

If you told me I was going to live to 240, I would take 10 years off and try and act. I don't have that kind of time, so I'd much rather stick to playing guitar.

I'm willing to make compromises based on someone I think is the one, but I think it's psychologically important to people when they're famous to be the only famous person they know.

I've learned to appreciate everything that has been given to me.

When you do an interview with me, you're talking to a cheap imitation of the person that I really am. There's no magic in my words, it's just me talking.

I feel strikingly domestic. We're in our own world with two busses and trucks.

Every song I put on a record could be a single and I just pack my bags for it... and the minute it takes off, I'm not gonna be home for a while.

All I want a song to do is just to kind of present an idea.

I'm not as surprised in going from playing 1,000 seats to 4,000 seats as I was from 100 to 500 seats.

There's so many inspiring people out there.

Nothing feels worse than having to break the stage down before the performance, and I mean nothing.

There's a certain lack of gimmickry to what I do that makes people in England go: 'Where's the thing?'

I'm not an icon. Not even in America.