There's a lot of spirituality and hope in our music that I think people are catching on to. It's not punk, it's not Green Day, not Offspring, not Soundgarden, not Stone Temple Pilots, not all of the other bands that are coming out.

Anarchy would be a world that nobody felt responsible for, that nobody felt any sort of love for. When there's real intelligence happening, when there's real love happening, there's a sense of responsibility: Hey, we've got to take care of this place and each other.

I believe that rock and roll can really make a huge impact on people's lives.

Critics are critics: their job is to find things wrong with people.

I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time.

I never know how I'll feel on any given day, but I've got to look around me and take what I got and find some inspiration, some anger.

Being sent away to boarding school at seven is as great an inspiration as any songwriter could have - to be taken away from one's family and locked away for 10 years. It does create an incredible intensity of emotion.

For me, songwriting is something I have to do ritually. I don't just wait for inspiration; I try to write a little bit every day.