I've just had this idea pop in my head of trying to learn a new song every da, and try and play it that night. That's been fun for me because it's a little bit of a scary adventure, playing a song for the first time in front of people and letting it just be what it is.

Sometimes, I want to make a record that's so schizophrenic and so all over the place, and then other times, I want to make a record that's very coherent and very short and together.

I just think bad vibes and hate and Trump are getting so much airtime, we need to speak out loud for peace and equality and fairness and make sure we all know that there are a lot of us out here in the world that just want love.

Ever since I got back surgery, everything in my life has been about reduction. I've got the lightest backpack I can carry and the lightest MacBook.

I can't talk about the education of black children if I ignored two of my nieces who were a couple of grade levels behind. I believe that charity begins at home, and I take seriously the role of a godfather to fill the gap when the parents aren't doing their job.

Even after I'd published three books and had been writing full-time for twenty years, my father continued to urge me to go to law school.

I travel to a lot of schools, and I see firsthand that while we do still have a lot of traditional readers, we don't have as many as we used to. And we're missing an awful lot of kids entirely... Do I want to get rid of the Internet? Obviously, I don't want that because of all the amazing things it brings.

My dad was a high school teacher and made no money.