When I was younger, I was pretty cavalier about my voice - I don't know that I even thought about it that much, to be honest with you.

I've come to learn that music speaks for itself.

Each generation tries to disassociate itself with the last generation. And then, about three decades later, people kind of start to maybe appreciate what you might have done a while back that you don't even realize you did.

We've reached a point where people don't even know how to look for anything fundamentally important anymore.

I think it takes longer for me to make a record than most artists.

I enjoy it immensely, but I'm not comfortable on stage as a person.

There have been albums I've recorded in the past that have had success, and then there have been ones I've had extreme faith in, and they ended up as commercial failures.

It was surprising, really, that 'Minute by Minute' did as well as it did and as quickly as it did.

I didn't own a record player when I was younger. I just played every day after school and then started gigging around town. I heard bands and songs through friends of mine, but a lot of what I picked up on was learned by traveling through college towns.

For me, one of the best things of having been a Doobie Brother is that the people involved always were great people.

I've never felt that I was doing anything more worthwhile musically than when I was with Steely Dan.

Working with Thundercat was really a thrill.

I felt a real kinship with Steve Bruner. He's one of those guys that is so prolific that he has a hard time keeping up with himself. I'm the opposite and move at a glacial place.

I'd say that Ray Charles is definitely the biggest influence on my singing. Also Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

I wish I wrote songs like Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Don Henley, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, so many of the songwriters I admire. They have the ability to say things.

Frankly, I think it's flattering to be compared to someone like Michael Bolton, who I think is a phenomenal singer with a spectacular range.

Being in the studio, for me, can be a miserable experience - I can really psych myself out.

I'm always like the guy who wants to date the pretty girl so bad, and when he finally gets the chance, he blows it because he spends too much time worrying about it.

In order for life to be more than a frustrating game of one-upsmanship, one has to remain emotionally open and vulnerable.

I have friends who write all the time, and I envy them terribly.

I love to write songs, but they don't come easy to me - I spend a lot of time writing really dumb stuff that I have to look at the next day and think, 'God, what was I thinking?' That's my process, is just to go through a lot of dumb stuff and hope that, after a lot of hard work, I'll find a good idea.

Probably some of the most miserable years of my life were grappling with some definition of what success was.

Beck is obviously a consummate musician. He plays instruments, many instruments. He can make his own record without having a fleet of computer operators onboard.

I suppose I hit my lowest point in the early to mid-80s, which is when things really spun out of control for me.

When I first heard Thundercat's stuff, I thought, 'Man, this is so original.' A lot of his ballads, to me, had such a beautiful harmonic, almost classically Hispanic, feel or, like, Brazilian kind of feeling. I don't think he does that intentionally or anything. It's just I think those are his influences on some level.

I love Coldplay.

I've been set up with a Twitter account, and I just never use it.

I hope to capture the public's imagination, but I can't live in the anxiety of that.

I truly cherish the time and experience with friends that I have been making music with for so many years, even decades now.

I've always been an artist that has had a problem with genres, staying in the box, and being told what I had to be.

Whether artists know it or not, I think we're all a little influenced by what came before.

The 'Motown' detour for me was almost like it wasn't work. It was more fun than work, and that's all it takes for me to not be very responsible to other things I should have been paying attention to.

Honestly, I've never thought of myself as a mover and shaker of songwriting.

Like everyone else, I have a lot of things I'd like to do that I'll probably never get around to. But for the most part, I live day to day.

I think, as musicians, that's really all we want is to keep working. We want to have a reason to be, and we want to play for as many people in this span of life that we're allowed as we possibly can, and in as many places as we possibly can.

I think when you're not prepared for something, success can be as crippling a thing as failure to people. I think it touches whatever insecurities you have, that you may not be as in touch with you as you should be or whatever.

What I particularly liked about Nineties hip hop was it had a certain reverence for the groove that I hadn't been hearing in a while.

I tell my son, when your music becomes less relevant, your pathetic comic value might be of some use. So you've got to go with it, you know.

I played so many clubs growing up, and back in that period, in the '60s, we'd play, like, four, five sets a night.

I grew up in the era where everybody wanted to sing like Mitch Ryder and James Brown. And I did, too. But I learned real quick that it hurts after a while.

Everything's challenging for me, singing-wise. I'm like an old truck with one gear left on it.

My wife is, by and large, the best thing that ever happened to me.

Laziness can be virtuous in the right setting, I guess.

Warner Bros. was a great label to be affiliated with. It's the best label out there, and the fact that I was with them for 20 years was just an honor.

I know that things change and markets change. Those are the realities of the business.

Most of my life is taken up with family. It takes me awhile to get a record together that I feel is worthy of putting out.

It's funny how, as we get older, what become our fondest memories are not necessarily the happiest times of our lives but the times of our lives that shaped us the most.

I'm a very slow songwriter; it takes me sometimes years to write one song, if I ever finish.

I've always had a dream that I might write a Christmas song that might resonate with people during the holidays.

undefined