I played so many clubs growing up, and back in that period, in the '60s, we'd play, like, four, five sets a night.

I tell my son, when your music becomes less relevant, your pathetic comic value might be of some use. So you've got to go with it, you know.

What I particularly liked about Nineties hip hop was it had a certain reverence for the groove that I hadn't been hearing in a while.

I think when you're not prepared for something, success can be as crippling a thing as failure to people. I think it touches whatever insecurities you have, that you may not be as in touch with you as you should be or whatever.

I think, as musicians, that's really all we want is to keep working. We want to have a reason to be, and we want to play for as many people in this span of life that we're allowed as we possibly can, and in as many places as we possibly can.

Like everyone else, I have a lot of things I'd like to do that I'll probably never get around to. But for the most part, I live day to day.

Honestly, I've never thought of myself as a mover and shaker of songwriting.

The 'Motown' detour for me was almost like it wasn't work. It was more fun than work, and that's all it takes for me to not be very responsible to other things I should have been paying attention to.

Whether artists know it or not, I think we're all a little influenced by what came before.

I've always been an artist that has had a problem with genres, staying in the box, and being told what I had to be.

I truly cherish the time and experience with friends that I have been making music with for so many years, even decades now.

I hope to capture the public's imagination, but I can't live in the anxiety of that.

I've been set up with a Twitter account, and I just never use it.

I love Coldplay.

When I first heard Thundercat's stuff, I thought, 'Man, this is so original.' A lot of his ballads, to me, had such a beautiful harmonic, almost classically Hispanic, feel or, like, Brazilian kind of feeling. I don't think he does that intentionally or anything. It's just I think those are his influences on some level.

I suppose I hit my lowest point in the early to mid-80s, which is when things really spun out of control for me.

Beck is obviously a consummate musician. He plays instruments, many instruments. He can make his own record without having a fleet of computer operators onboard.

Probably some of the most miserable years of my life were grappling with some definition of what success was.

I love to write songs, but they don't come easy to me - I spend a lot of time writing really dumb stuff that I have to look at the next day and think, 'God, what was I thinking?' That's my process, is just to go through a lot of dumb stuff and hope that, after a lot of hard work, I'll find a good idea.

I have friends who write all the time, and I envy them terribly.

In order for life to be more than a frustrating game of one-upsmanship, one has to remain emotionally open and vulnerable.

I'm always like the guy who wants to date the pretty girl so bad, and when he finally gets the chance, he blows it because he spends too much time worrying about it.

Being in the studio, for me, can be a miserable experience - I can really psych myself out.

Frankly, I think it's flattering to be compared to someone like Michael Bolton, who I think is a phenomenal singer with a spectacular range.