I've never written a song that I thought was a hit.

I didn't want my last chapter to be the guy who sits at the piano and sings love songs.

The only thing that's a little tricky about it is sometimes people assume that if it's a new song, it's a reflection of what you're feeling or going through now.

I really didn't have any plans to record prior to doing My Own Best Enemy.

My joke, which isn't really a joke, is that there will be one of two tours: the tour for the album that does well, or the tour for the album that stiffs.

I think I do better when things are a little tougher.

I've never, ever in my life enjoyed playing live the way I am now.

I love when people get songs wrong. I love when people take something from a song that's totally not what I intended!

I understand that, but this disc shows the type of music that I've always liked and wanted to make.

In the past, there has always been so much pressure about carrying a show and promoting a record.

So it was just a case of getting a bunch of songs that I had been writing for years but hadn't recorded together, and the result was My Own Best Enemy.

And to any new fans we made along the way, I say... welcome to our party. It's just starting to get going.

I've never written a song that I thought was a hit.

It never ceases to amaze me that I get to do this for a living.

When things are too easy I lose interest in them so I find ways to complicate them to get myself interested.

One time Robert Plant was set to check into the same room after I checked out, so I removed every light bulb and ordered up a bunch of stinky cheese and put it under the mattress.

I fell off stage and bruised some ribs. The worst part was that the audience didn't realize I was gone.

People take songs so literally.

I'm happy, I would say that I'm one of the happiest people I know but I've certainly had periods of profound sadness, depression and heartache and those are the kind of things that are interesting to me to write about.

I think really what I'm saying is that I thrive on adversity.

But I'm just having fun playing and giving Botox injections to the older songs.

But once you have some success in one style, the business wants to lock you in that vein forever.

I've always loved groups like U2 and Coldplay.

I can't wait to front my band with these new songs and play for fans, but I've decided to keep my day job too.

As a songwriter, there's nothing better than winning Song Of The Year. But I couldn't really celebrate, because it wasn't right. Luther wasn't standing next to me, to receive the award.

I have complete freedom, and there's no way to get pigeonholed or bored. What could be better than that?

I'm now so keenly aware that I have everything to prove and nothing to lose.

I don't think I've ever laid out a batch of songs that pick myself apart the way that these do.

It's funny; Luther and I have written many songs together, but we've never written songs in the same room.

Doing my own album provided me the opportunity to say whatever I wanted.

But more importantly, I think he remembered how very close I was with my own dad, who had died in 1997.

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.

Then, in that hour of deliverance, my heart spoke. Does not such a country, and such defenders of their country, deserve a song?

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.

I guess a good song is a good song is a good song, ya know.

In the past 3-4 years I've developed a habit of keeping numerous small cassette recorders in my house and in a bag with me so that I'm able to commit to tape memory song ideas on a constant basis.

I don't ask for the meaning of the song of a bird or the rising of the sun on a misty morning. There they are, and they are beautiful.

The band set up in January and just started rehearsing. If there was a song, we'd just rehearse it as a band, and it would get arranged as a band, and it got changed around a lot.

Peace Train is a song I wrote, the message of which continues to breeze thunderously through the hearts of millions of human beings.

I love listening to Radio Head's 'Everything in its Right Place' because it's all major chords, it makes you feel really good. It's soothing, it's got a beautiful voice, crazy textures. When I'm down I listen to that song and it really makes me feel good.

I've always wanted to sing, just as I've always known that one day I would have my own niche in the annals of song. It was a feeling I had.

I have eighteen titles in the German language. I had a number one song in 1965.

Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies.

There's a lot of rage... you have to express it somehow. If I didn't express it in song, I'd become incredibly violent.

I do not mind having written the song at all. I just wish that I had written it in a different key, as the high d is hard to play. I am glad that I wrote something that brought joy to millions of people.

It's like, it's up to the people to fall in love with the song. The record company can only do so much.

People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There are very few songs that I can think of where I remember the words.

I guess you could write a good song if your heart hadn't been broken, but I don't know of anyone whose heart hasn't been broken.