When people tend to be happier they have more interest in the world around them.

I guess when I was younger, I'd have assumed that in 2008 music would be full of great writers following in the tradition of the young great writers of the '60s and '70s, but it hasn't turned out that way, or at least there are no other writers around that I look at and think: 'Wow, I'm outclassed, I need to get out of this business.'

I ask myself when I see a new album: 'Is this an album that they needed to make, or do they need to just keep making albums?'

Fan reaction is so out-sized and hyperbolic in rock music compared to other arts.

I don't think any songwriter who comes up through playing clubs can really claim to have independently developed their art. All along the way so much information is coming, the writer inside the performer unconsciously reacts to all of that. By the time they get to be thirty, the writer is gone.

That's the way I've always been, between the albums: For two- or three-year gaps I wouldn't pick up a guitar. And when I don't pick up a guitar for a year or two, that's when the songs fall out.

I've never been a big movie person, but I used to watch movies regularly in my life, and sometime in the '90s I just stopped. I certainly never was an educated moviegover.

I want so many artists that I care about to go away and grow up, and have been amazed at how hard that is for some people to do.

It's a Gen X thing to be okay with going unnoticed or unrated or untouched. To be free from strangers' expectations, or anger. People got angry at me when I stopped making music because it seemed I was devaluing everything.

I don't have religion or culture. I don't have anything I can believe in when I'm really scared. When I play the songs, I feel the fear disappear.

I'm not a good singer.

I take pride in the fact that I can walk away from things. My willingness to walk away has protected me, I realize that now. Being able to walk away from sessions, from poetry, from dreams of being a poetry professor.

My only advice would be to someone right now, is if you're in a position in your life where you need to make a change, this is the best time.

Nashville only thrives when talented people from out of town move here from somewhere else.

The greatest thing about Nashville is that it's welcoming.

I believe that intermittent live performance has cut short the writing lives of touring musicians.

I was not born to be the center of attention in a crowded room.

Allen Ginsburg was wrong about a lot of things, but especially when he said, 'First thought, best thought.'

Lyrically, country music is the most satisfying music for me.

Intellectuals and creative people, once they start talking about God they get put into this other category: 'I don't go to people's music like that to understand my life.'

If I believed in fate I'd be very curious why I picked the name Silver Jews.

I was 29 or 30 when I felt sure of what I was doing, but not fully identifying as a songwriter until I was 37.

In the beginning, it was meant to be like a faceless art piece. Then I did the first record and it received enough notice to satisfy my needs. I questioned the procedure out of fear. The Silver Jews was never meant to be recreated live.

I don't have any desire to be in a relationship with anyone else, and I do feel like I'm on the other side of my career of being a Lothario.