“Because there are hundreds of different ways to say one thing, I, being a writer, songwriter, and poet, speak childishly and incoherently. In speech there is so much to decide in so little time.”

“When you’re at odds with yourself, it’s hard to create. Sometimes the writing process is as easy as opening up the window and letting in the breeze. And sometimes it’s like chiseling away at a block of granite with a pencil.”

“I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing than a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing.”

“I hereby grant you permission to write crap. The more the better. Remember, crap makes the best fertilizer.”

“If I knew what to doI’d do more than write a song for you”

“There have been times I’ve felt so much art in my soul I grew sick of artists.”

“Songwriting and poetry are so commonly birthed from underdogs because one can make even the ugliest situations admirable, or more beautiful than the beautiful situations – they are the most graceful media in which the lines of society are distorted.”

“so much of the world is plunged in darkness and chaos…So ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offeringThere is a crack in everythingThat’s how the light gets in.”

“I enjoy melancholic music and art. They take me to places I don’t normally get to go.”

“A steampunk nationBaby pollution rises up then the loving comes arraigning ’causeOur art’s official and only partially artificialAnd our heart’s in the middle of sharp hardened shards of metal butThere’s not where it settlesBecause it’s beating to the steaming of God’s hottest pot or kettleAnd now we face it, this creation we made toTo save our craving for a synthetic rebelnation it’sOur safeway they make into a pathetic revelationIn our steampunk nationOur steampunk nation”

“I think there is a song out there to describe just about any situation.”

“… so this is for us.This is for us who sing, write, dance, act, study, run and loveand this is for doing it even if no one will ever knowbecause the beauty is in the act of doing it.Not what it can lead to.This is for the times I lose myself while writing, singing, playingand no one is around and they will never knowbut I will forever rememberand that shines brighter than any praise or fame or glory I will ever have,and this is for you who write or play or read or singby yourself with the light off and door closedwhen the world is asleep and the stars are alignedand maybe no one will ever hear itor read your wordsor know your thoughtsbut it doesn’t make it less glorious.It makes it ethereal. Mysterious.Infinite.For it belongs to you and whatever God or spirit you believe inand only you can decide how much it meantand meansand will forever meanand other people will experience it toothrough you.Through your spirit. Through the way you talk.Through the way you walk and love and laugh and careand I never meant to write this longbut what I want to say is:Don’t try to present your art by making other people read or hear or see or touch it; make them feel it. Wear your art like your heart on your sleeve and keep it alive by making people feel a little better. Feel a little lighter. Create art in order for yourself to become yourselfand let your very existence be your song, your poem, your story.Let your very identity be your book.Let the way people say your name sound like the sweetest melody.So go create. Take photographs in the wood, run alone in the rain and sing your heart out high up on a mountainwhere no one will ever hearand your very existence will be the most hypnotising scar.Make your life be your artand you will never be forgotten.”

“Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.”