I've followed the lives of great musicians and have learned that you don't have to always write in pain. You have all of your past experiences, feelings, and thoughts that you can turn on when you need them and turn off when you don't.

We don't really have a place in the universe, as far as on a timeline. But nothing else does, either. Therefore every moment really is the most important moment that's ever happened, including this moment right now.

I write almost every single part of my songs, even the actual drum parts sometimes, whether they be simple or layered with many different instruments.

Having been on tour in countries that are extremely eco-friendly, we automatically end up doing the things that normal people do in other countries.

The policy of the future cannot forever be determined by the politics of the past - or even the present.

A good two years after Hurricane Katrina I remember feeling so devastated and so ignorant that there was so much damage still left. I felt like here I was an American and this is an American city and the government hasn't done enough and people haven't given back enough. Everyone forgot and the city was lying in waste.

I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.

The artist can be above political parties, he can belong in a political party, he can act in politics.