Yeah, once the song is written, it just complexifies the profile of it to have the music and the words at odds. It comes naturally to me. A lot of my music is like that.

The world of commerce is a kind of a purgatory itself.

For a long time, I've struggled very, very much with what people call treatment-resistant depression.

I don't have time for language poetry anymore. I don't want to throw people off anymore.

I can't imagine putting my name on a t-shirt. For someone to wear my name? Me? It's ridiculous.

I heard Springsteen was an unhappy person. I don't know, I haven't read his biography. But a lot of people in my field should be a lot more unhappy than they are.

I always loved bands with mystique.

Natalie Maines has a voice for the centuries.

I grew up the son of a businessman. And I didn't get into music to be a businessman.

Bobby Braddock is great.

I've never been from a certain group. I've always reserved a space for myself where I'm unattached to any group, but the part of Judaism that I really take away, that means something to me, is the part about community.

I bought a guitar when I was twenty. But I didn't write a song until I was 25 or 26. I never learned to play others songs. I learned to play my own songs while I was learning how to make them better.

I was much further along as a poet than as a songwriter, but the songs were getting more attention. They were doing what art is supposed to do, mixing it up with people.

My whole life I've tried to find the thing I can do that other people can't do, and invest in that, and the one thing I can do is write narratives and build characters. I can do that.

In a lot of ways, I wouldn't be an artist in another time. I need to exist in a time where high and low art mix easily.

When art is about craftsmanship, then guys like me don't make it as artists.

If critics were harder on the musicians that they love, there would be better songs. But as they grow older and they lose their talent, critics refuse to let them know that and protect them, and they get to the point where they put out music that just isn't up to the levels where they've already been.

In an email... like I did 100 interviews, and I never repeated one story. That's impossible to do when you do face-to-face interviews, because your brain locks and you say the same thing over and over again.

I have bad vision, but it's not distorted. It's low power!

I think reporters think that they can get something extra out of a person face-to-face, but in reality people just give stock answers because there's a social situation going on.

I trust myself.

All musicians should write poetry or at least read it if they want to improve their game. Except for people who believe lyrics don't matter.

You don't meet too many actors in Nashville.

In 2004, I don't think any Silver Jews fan was probably expecting another record.