I go to the movies a lot on off days. I exercise. I have routines that I go by.

The good thing about songwriting is you don't have to delineate between what's true and what's fiction; records aren't put on the shelf that way. Books are, movies are, but records aren't.

Good sounds, they just make you feel good.

I don't remember a lot of the good times from my days with the Truckers.

My dad, as much as I love him, has one of those signs - 'The Isbell's' - on his front door, and he's got the damn apostrophe in there. I haven't strangled him yet.

I think Spotify is honestly just another one of Sean Parker's ways of ripping musicians off.

My dad, he worries a bit, usually with good reason. There were quite a few years there where he was probably trying to resign himself to fact that I wouldn't live too much longer, just because of the way I was living.

When I was writing 'Southeastern,' I'd just recently gotten sober. For me, that was a major turning point in my life. It changed things I did on a day-to-day basis. My whole routine was upended. It took me some time to get used to that and figure out how do I keep myself entertained.

I think for anything to be successful, your problems have to become different problems over time.

I need enough room to eventually throw a baseball with a child; that's all the yard I need. That's all I want.

A lot of the world turns into checklists for me when I'm on the road. Like, OK, this person's alive, this person's fed, this person's good. Soundcheck is done. Everything becomes a checklist except for the actual show.

I like not having to worry about paying the bills, but I have to watch myself because I don't come from money.

Sometimes I leave an encounter or a conversation hoping that I didn't come off as above my raisin' - hoping that I didn't make somebody feel bad for not having as much as we're fortunate to have.

I'm not looking to be a superstar. I just want to be in a room with good people who are similar to me and are at least open to things that I have to say.

Terrible things happen all of the time, and they can happen in a second. The best thing is to be prepared to react. If you try to control every little thing, you're going to end up miserable - and you're going to fail.

It occurred to me the thing that broke my heart the most was when I grew up and realized everything wasn't an adventure. I got to a certain age and realized I couldn't be Indiana Jones.

I like to play pool. When the ball goes in the pocket, you win.

I'm not a big AA guy, but I'll go every once in a while. They do tell you that going out and helping other people really helps you a lot. It seems like a simple thing to say, but it's really true.

If you're going to write, you're going to have to force yourself to really study the world.

No matter what you thought your plans were, that's not how things are going to work out, and that's the only way you can really, I think, live successfully.

My wife and I both grew up with parents who were very young. Her mom was, I think, 17 or 18 when she was born; my mom was 15 when I was born. So, as we got older, we started thinking a lot about that - about the time that those people missed because we came along when we did and because they devoted so much of their lives to taking care of us.

Most of the people that I spend my time around are people who listen to a whole lot of different kinds of music.

Everything I do in my political life is colored by my military service. It was the defining moment in my life and helped me develop the leadership skills that I still utilize.

To me, leadership has always been about doing what's right. Because when you've had to write your blood type on your boots, you aren't afraid to make the right calls.

I believe in President Obama.

I think that one of the things that Democrats, in particular, need to recognize is that the way we have sometimes thought about issues as just affecting a particular group of people is not necessarily right.

If we all work together, then we can save the American Dream from the nightmare that is Donald Trump.

I've stood in rooms in urban, rural, and suburban parts of my state and asked a room of middle class voters to raise their hands if the college debt of someone in their family is affecting their financial situation. Without exception, at least three quarters of the room will raise their hand.

Doing things right in politics is no different than doing things right in life: Tell the truth, be yourself.

When one donor can account for more than 70 percent of a candidate's money, there's obviously something wrong with the system.

Voters aren't asking to be pandered to and aren't asking to be tricked.

I don't judge anybody who chose not to serve during Vietnam, at all. It's a different time, and I don't judge anybody for the decision they made.

I could work with anybody. This is why we need more veterans in Congress.

In the Army, I learned how to use and respect my rifle.

Ground troops... have to be a last resort. I think they should always be a last resort.

Voter suppression anywhere hurts our democracy everywhere.

I realize there are a lot of folks in my political party who disagree with me on this, but I think the Patriot Act is an important law enforcement tool, and it makes our country safer.

I'm a Democrat because I want every American to have a fair shot at the American Dream. That's what ties it all together for me, and in my experience, that means recognizing that no one is dealing with life one 'issue' at a time.

We were at a kibbutz, and we were at a Shabbat service, and I opened up the prayer book, and on the first page, it said that the prayer book was in thanks to the sponsorship of this family in a temple in Kansas City. For me, it was a moment when I really kind of connected in a real serious way with my personal identity as a Jew.

I thought of myself as a soldier who was going to law school.

You've got to tell people how it is that you've come to believe what you do.

As Democrats, when we try to determine who or what allowed Donald Trump to become president, we should look in the mirror.

There are states with photo ID requirements that don't disenfranchise eligible voters.

The secret to adulthood is that 99% of the time, you actually know the right thing to do. Adults make it hard when they are deciding whether to do the right thing.

Really, Donald Trump's entire message is that people like Sen. Blunt are the problem.

In the state legislature, I supported Second Amendment rights.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been an adviser to Trump, although he still very publicly couldn't land a job in the president's Cabinet, despite providing that counsel. And Kobach has a long history of making up facts to help him pass unfair voter suppression laws and push extreme anti-immigrant proposals.

We have got to zero in on the fact that all of us, no matter where you live, want our kids' lives to be an upgrade over our own, and we would really like it if our kids could come back and live where we raised them.

If you've been willing to put your life on the line to do something important for your country or your state, putting your job on the line is really not a very big deal.

I believe there should be political consequences for politicians who commit voter suppression.