I had a passion and a soul in me that was screaming to be heard, and I had to let them out in as honest and challenging a way as I could.

When I was a kid and writing more acoustic songs, I was doing it more for the attention than for the love of the music. I knew I needed to change something because I wasn't having fun and wasn't liking the songs I was writing.

If you can fool every single member of the audience into thinking you're confident and you deserve to be there, everyone will jump on your side.

For me, creating music is just as relaxing as sitting down and doing nothing.

My grandfather was a church organist and would sing in choirs and was a musical genius to a certain extent.

The music in my family has always been there; it's been quite an obvious trait that seems to have trickled down the bloodline.

I remember, from aged six to nine, I was loud and abrasive and loved making noise and loved playing instruments and doing all those things. When I was about ten, I realised I could get attention by doing that, so when I was eleven, I started writing songs.

People don't want to hear the same song 12 times in a row on an album.

I don't think there's any such thing as perfection. But I'm a perfectionist. I don't believe in the idea of perfection, but I will strive to achieve it.

I've always said that I would only ever release something that I would want to listen to as a fan.

I feel the best way to respect my audience is to not give them what they expect from me... 'cause it's fun that way.

I was a huge pop music fan as a kid, but the bands I was into were like 5ive and N-Sync. It was like watching a cartoon. There was so much going on, and the production was so well mixed. Stevie Wonder was able to give you those melodies and production but back it up with such creative integrity and real musicianship and artistry.

My guitar setup is inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I saved up my pocket money when I was about five or six years old. I just wanted to buy a CD, and at that age, I didn't care about what it was, and I ended up buying 'The Teletubbies Say 'Eh-Oh!'' I started off strong.

I'm fascinated by film scores, especially film scores for children's movies because they have to be able to entertain an audience that isn't interested in music yet.

I listen to podcasts when I run because it means my mind still gets stimulated by something else.

In 2012, General Dempsey, General Petraeus directed the CIA, Secretary Panetta and Secretary Clinton recommended to the president to robustly arm and train the Syrian moderates. He says no. In 2013, conduct a military strike, same national security team, against the Assad regime because he violated the chemical red line. He says no.

My involvement with Guantanamo began as vice chief of staff.

Afghanistan is where much of the al Qaeda journey began. It is the main site where Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and their cohort rose to prominence fighting the Soviets in the 1980s. Afghan territory holds special significance to the group, which is committed to retaking it and re-establishing it as the base of a global movement.

The thing I have in common with Donald Trump is, about a dozen years ago, we got a 'Man of the Year' award in New York City, the Hotel Plaza, from the USO.

I read people; that's one of my strengths. It's not that I can't be fooled, but I'm not fooled often.

In 2005 in Iraq, the constitution was written. A new government was elected. That government was trying to take office in 2006.

In the early 2009, a campaign plan developed by Petraeus and General McChrystal to defeat the Taliban, they required a minimum force of 40,000. President Obama rejected that recommendation and provided 25 percent less. He also decided he would pull the force out in 12 to 15 months.

If we have the intent to use the military only when needed, then that also becomes, then, therefore, a credible deterrent.

Historically, aggression unanswered has led to more aggression.

Senator Clinton is very knowledgeable about national security and is probably going to be strong on defense. I have no doubts whatsoever that if she were president in January '09, she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the consequences, and squander the gains that have been made.

If Assad continues to conduct strikes against the Free Syrian Army at will, it would be very difficult for them to have any success against ISIS.

I'm a New York kid, so when I saw that plane that hit the first building, I suspected it was terrorism - blue sky day.

We should be robustly assisting the Free Syrian Army with equipment and also with training.

While conducting a conventional war in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has staged terrorist attacks on a global scale against the people from the countries who are fighting ISIS.

Russia and China completely disagree with the international order that was established after World War II, and they're trying to take it apart right before our eyes.

The only people that have ever fought ISIS in Syria is not the regime; it is the Free Syrian Army.

I totally disagree with the premise that al Qaeda is on the path to defeat. Quite the contrary, al Qaeda has deliberately decentralized its operations - not because of the relentless attacks we have had on its national leadership in Pakistan, but because its strategic objective is to dominate and control Muslim countries in the region.

Yes, we need a force to continue to train, assist, advise the Iraqi army.

United States and our allied partners need to wake up. ISIS is at war with us and civilization.

Aircraft are always going to be something that terrorists are interested in because you bring down an airliner, you have drawn the world's attention.

There are very few fighters in the ISIS organization in Iraq and Syria coming from the United States; most of them have either come from a region of the Middle East or from Europe.

If you took ISIS' oil, that would not stop them. It's not their only source of revenue. It would be a setback, but it would not stop them.

In 2011, General Alston, four-star commander in Iraq, recommended to the President, a force level of over 20,000. The President rejected it and pulled out all the forces with what is now known as a disastrous consequence in Syria.

The Pentagon is a series of wedges. So you have - the outer wedge has windows on the outside, and then inside of that, it has windows with an alleyway; then there's another wedge with windows outside, windows inside. And we call them the E Ring, the D Ring, the C Ring.

The Taliban has not, in my judgment, in any significant way changed their fundamental goal and objective, which is to take over Afghanistan and return to running that country. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have negotiation talks with them. I think we should. But we've got to be clear-eyed about it.

ISIS is on the offense, with the ability to attack at will, anyplace, anytime.

The Arab Spring, nobody's in the streets demonstrating for radical Islam; they're in the streets with a window of democracy. They want our political reform, our social justice, and our economic opportunity.

In my own mind, it is profoundly disappointing to see what has occurred in Iraq given the sacrifice of our troops, given our commitment to removing Saddam Hussein and putting in place a fledgling government that would have a chance for a stable, secure Iraq.

I have a close association with Gen. Petraeus... What you get in Dave Petraeus is a very unique officer, a combination of intelligence, extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding.

Sometimes, our expectations of being all-knowing is somewhat unrealistic. At the end of the day, there are people out there who mean harm to us, are thinking about doing harm to us and motivated to do it, and we don't know what that is.

On a professional side, you've got a tough problem to fix, Geoff Miller's going to do it, and he's always going to do it to very high standards, and he's always going to be on the side of right. He's always talking about 'what right looks like' - just a phrase he would always use.

Despite the obvious intelligence and security failures that contributed to the attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, the reality is that in one night, an al Qaeda-affiliated group destroyed a diplomatic post, killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and forced an end to clandestine U.S. activity in the area.

Afghanistan remains an opportunity to deal al Qaeda a vital strategic blow, especially since we have abandoned all operations - including counterterrorism operations - in Iraq.

In Washington, D.C., in 2006, Democrats had long since given up on the war in Iraq in terms of any tangible political support for it. The new factor was the Republicans were beginning to give up as well, and they were truly challenging the strategy and the lack of success.