I like to feel the burn of the audience's eyes when I'm whispering all my darkest secrets into the microphone.

I really just want to be warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love.

Let the poets cry themselves to sleep, and all their tearful words will turn back into steam.

I know a girl who cries when she practices violin because each note sounds so pure it just cuts into her, and then the melody comes pouring out her eyes. Now, to me, everything else just sounds like a lie.

When everything is lonely I can be my best friend.

Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers and laid entwined together on a bed of clover and left there to sleep, left there to dream of their happiness.

Why are you scared to dream of god when it's salvation that you want?

If the world could remain within a frame like a painting on the wall, I think we'd see the beauty then and stand staring in awe.

We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul.

Screaming is bad for the voice, but it's good for the heart.

I like to feel the burn of the audience's eyes when I'm whispering all my darkest secrets into the microphone.

Love's an excuse to get hurt.

They say it's better to bury your sadness in a graveyard or garden that waits for the spring to wake from its sleep and burst into green.

There's all body types, but there's just one size.

I've cried, and you'd think I'd be better for it, but the sadness just sleeps, and it stays in my spine the rest of my life.

No lies, just love.

A boycott is, inherently, a blunt instrument. It is an imperfect weapon, a carpet bomb, when all involved would prefer a surgical strike.

Although Omaha is my birthplace and the place I grew up, I don't see myself spending extended amounts of time there. I feel almost more comfortable and more at peace in New York.

Art is basically communication, and I think everyone who's a music lover has had that experience where a record or a recording has kept you company when no one else is around. And I think that is what I'm hoping that people get out of my music.

Art is essentially communication. It doesn't exist in a vacuum. That's why people make art, so other people can relate to it.

Considering our history, I can think of nothing more American than an immigrant.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of my all-time favorite writers. I feel spiritual when reading his words, even though they're translated. I wish desperately that I could read it in its original language. I already feel like I'm going to church when I read him; imagine if I could read it in the original.

I always embrace the worst-case scenario.

I believe that vinyl will outlast CDs.

I don't feel real confident expressing myself except when I'm writing. I feel kind of scatterbrained. I can see everything from both sides and that makes it hard to reach conclusions. Writing enables me to clarify things.

I enjoy recording and performing, but it's the songwriting that I love most.

I find that moving keeps me optimistic, the idea of what's going to be down the road a bit or around the next bend.

I have a car in Nebraska. When I bought it, they gave me a satellite radio, and there's an 'indie-rock' station. It's just nothing I'm interested in.

I have a terrible memory in general, but one thing I've always been able to remember is my songs.

I have many friends who are both Mexican and Mexican-American and others who, I guess you would say, are somewhere in between. The ironic thing is that all three of those categories often exist inside of the same family.

I have on many occasions spoken my mind from stage. I have offered organizations table space by the merch booth. I have donated a dollar-a-ticket, or the entire guarantee, to different causes. I have registered voters. I have played on behalf of political candidates.

I keep my eyes closed a lot when I'm singing because sometimes it's distracting to see people.

I kind of go in waves with reading. Sometimes I read all the time, and sometimes I can't get settled enough to focus.

I like ideas, but I don't like being preached to.

I like science fiction. Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Vonnegut, and I really like Margaret Atwood, 'The Handmaid's Tale.' And you know, so much of science fiction has to do with predicting what's to come, so I think that's really interesting.

I like the Alice in Wonderland sculpture in Central Park. I love how it's been rained on forever and looks worn down by time.

I prefer career artists that have spent time honing their craft, as opposed to, 'I won a karaoke contest on a reality show and now I have a record.' That's such a drag. The music that comes out of it is so poor.

I read the newspaper online. Mostly 'The New York Times.' I'll still buy papers if I'm getting on an airplane or the tour bus, though. I like physical things.

I really believe in the way the energy can consolidate in certain geographical spots. You can find it in a lot of different places, beautiful natural spots, or if you look at Islam or Judaism or Christianity, these ideas of holy places.

I remember having to quit school and quit my job. I just sort of moved all my stuff into other people's places. Within, like, six months, I was able to earn enough money from touring to rent a place again.

I think in a lot of ways unconditional love is a myth. My mom's the only reason I know it's a real thing.

I think there are some songs that stand the test of time better than others for sure. I think some songs go out of favour; I'll get sick of a song for a while, and I won't play it; then it'll make a comeback.

I think there's a danger, for me at least, in retreating and going inward and depression. I have to stay diligent against that tendency.

I think there's so much about Rasta culture that's interesting. Just the idea of preaching one-ness, that we're all in this together.

I think we should be pushing for amnesty and a path to citizenship for every undocumented person residing in the United States who has not committed a violent crime, with a special emphasis on keeping families together.

I try to keep the idea that there's an audience in as little space in my mind as possible, but you can't erase it entirely, the idea that when you're sitting down to write a song, people are going to hear it.

I used to work at a school as a teacher's assistant, and my mom is a principal at an elementary school. I don't know, I think that's a pretty good life, teaching kids.

I was raised Catholic, and I have an aversion to anyone who takes religion to the extreme.

I went right from wunderkind to washed up. Old. Been around too long. That's just the way I feel. That's my internal dialogue.