Something I've learned being in this industry for so long is that if you want to work with somebody, call them up. Very few musicians have any illusions about genre boundaries. They are useful descriptive terms, but they don't really bind musicians.

To me, the only good reason to be touring is if you still have something good to share instead of just revisiting past glories.

To me, everything is always new. People involved in my personal life make fun of me a lot for not being jaded.

People think of me as a nice person because, I think, I have grown into a nice person.

You get this really cool groove when you're playing just piano, bass, and drums where everyone's sort of feeling each other's space, which is the only way to put it, but it really is true, and everyone's sort of sitting in their own pocket. It's kind of jazz-like.

A book is a journey: It's a thing you agree to go on with somebody, and I think every reader's experience of a book is going to be different.

Adulthood is interesting to adults. But I would never want to write about stuff I don't feel everybody can connect to.

People do all sorts of things impulsively and follow those impulses into strange places.

I'm finding things out about myself as a person - as a writer - as I write, and so are the people who listen to what I do. But they have this additional aspect of how they take the stuff that I do, and so it broadens the work, and it creates this strange connection.

Wrestling is like any form of drama or pretty much any form of entertainment - some people understand this about forms of entertainment really intuitively when they're younger, and others would have to be really not very intelligent for a long time until we realize that every human mood is an art.

I know the Bible pretty well. I'm not one of those guys who can immediately start quoting every book, but usually I know where to look to find certain themes.

Songs are often character studies.

Wrestlers give their bodies to their work. I don't know if I like the word 'crazy' here. What I would say is there are people who have a different relationship to their bodies than most people.

Sometimes I'll write without the guitar or the piano, but most of the time I'll be playing and just improvising some words. And when I get something that sounds good, a line with a story in it, I'll try and tease it out and figure out where the story is going.

I write for a lot of places, so I'm on a lot of promo lists.

For years, I've written narrators who aren't gender-identified. When I do autobiographical stuff, that's different, obviously. But I've always tried to keep my songs as potentially not a man's thing.

I try not to write songs in which men glamorize their own need for approval from women. That's kinda a bogus way to go out. But I try to do this quietly. I'm not about to go around telling people how they should or shouldn't think. My feminism is for me.

Your creativity before it gets formed into words and songs is the actual substance. No one else can see it, right? Unless you give it the shape of a song or a painting or whatever.

My favorite movies are gory horror films. I love Faulkner. I wanted to see the most painful things possible.

The better I get at writing songs, the harder it seems to be to relate to people. But when I get on stage, I'm extremely happy.

Climate change is the environmental challenge of this generation, and it is imperative that we act before it's too late.

A family's love is often the best medicine, and in difficult times, I believe that our military families deserve the option of staying together.

We have to start grounding our policies in facts and recognize that a strong economy is critical for funding progressive priorities.

Clay Hunt was the kind of individual that has made America a great country. In 2005, when his country needed him, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Shot in Iraq, he earned a Purple Heart, and after he recuperated, he graduated from Marine Corps Scout Sniper School and was deployed to Afghanistan.

In the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a still-stagnant economy, President Barack Obama faces two important questions on energy transmission: a decision on the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the question of increasing American natural gas exports. These are choices that will resonate from Crimea to Cove Point.

I think there's a disconnect between political leaders and young voters around a lot of things related to the private sector. For example, a lot of politicians continue to attack big banks. While I'm not a defender of big banks, my sense is younger voters have had generally pretty good experiences with banks.

Using static scoring, tax cuts are broadly assumed to 'cost' a raw amount of reduced revenue. With dynamic scoring, the new revenue likely to flow from increased economic activity produced by a tax cut is considered, improving the accuracy of the projection.

Two decades of experience as an entrepreneur and CEO has informed my view that our priorities must stress improving educational outcomes, rebuilding America's infrastructure, lowering health care costs, addressing climate change, reforming immigration, and ushering in an advanced energy economy.

During their service, men and women in our Armed Forces live by a common creed, promising never to leave a soldier behind. We should live by the same principle. When our veterans are asked to travel hundreds of miles for care that's offered right next door, we simply aren't living up to that standard, and something has to change.

All taxpayers feel a tremendous sense of frustration as they see many tens of billions of dollars of bonuses paid to the same mega banks that were on the brink of bankruptcy and were only saved by massive government rescue money and support. We are not satisfied by the fact that many of them have paid the money back, nor should we be.

The administration must act promptly to ensure that the central premise of the Affordable Care Act is executable and, rather than dismissing criticism, should examine it in good faith and work to serve the needs of the people. President Obama must approach this problem like a CEO confronting a very bad product launch.

If done correctly, dynamic scoring will provide a more complete picture of Congress's actions. This is exactly the type of modeling the private sector uses, and advances in data collection and analysis create an opportunity for it to be employed accurately.

I'm not an economist, but I have spent time around thousands of small-business owners and investors, and I remain skeptical - despite the best intentions of the Fed - that even lower interest rates can make a meaningful dent in our unemployment problem.

Do I think it is good policy for the government to own companies? Normally, I'd say 'no.' But in my world, if a firm puts itself in a position that it needs a last minute rescue, and the future is uncertain at best, then the investor who steps into that breach ends up owning the company. Full stop.

Veterans come from all walks of life, and they live in small towns and big cities, in red states and blue states.

I'm immensely proud to be a Democrat because of our party's history of fighting for justice, fairness, and equality. From Roosevelt to Obama, we've worked to bring seniors and children out of poverty, expanded civil rights, supported science and research, and pushed for equality of opportunity.

I'm a blue-collar kid who went on to become a successful entrepreneur. I was the youngest CEO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. Now I've served my country for six years in the House of Representatives.

The best companies with the strongest credit ratings borrow like the United States: on a non-prioritized basis. This means that in the event of a default, all of their debts are of equal priority because lenders and creditors believe default is highly unlikely. And they spend considerable effort maintaining this status.

The United States has the world's largest and most innovative economy, an unmatched rule of law, and a free market that is the envy of the international community. For investors, we are the reserve currency.

America's men and women in uniform bravely defend our nation and our values. Their skill, dedication, and valor are the envy of the world. When their time in uniform is over, they are entitled to world-class health care, a benefit they've earned and that their country is grateful to provide for them.

One of the things I've pledged is in my first hundred days, only to do bipartisan proposals. Wouldn't it be amazing if a president looked at the American people at the inauguration and said, 'I represent every one of you, whether you voted for me or not and this is how I'm going to prove it.'

Washington is paralyzed by extreme political rhetoric that creates powerful sound bites but poor policy.

The impact of low interest rates is broad and deep. Many Americans rely on interest income from their savings to help cover their cost of living.

Instead of serving special interests, Congress should focus on the big picture. Globalization and technology have completely reshaped our economy in recent decades, and if we don't respond, we're putting the future of the middle class at risk.

While many employers do the right thing and provide flexible schedules for disabled veterans, I felt that it was important to provide all disabled veterans with a solution that would help them have access to medical leave. Here's how our bill works: we accelerate the eligibility process for disabled veterans.

Getting trade policy right is huge for our economy and huge for Maryland. This is about creating Maryland jobs by selling Maryland products to Asia, moving right from Western Maryland farms out through the Port of Baltimore.

I am of the view that the Affordable Care Act will be a transformative piece of legislation that can lower the cost of health care in the United States - perhaps our greatest fiscal obstacle - and help all Americans lead healthy and productive lives, free from worry that a single illness could mean ruin for an entire family.

Addressing climate change and positioning the United States as the leader in advanced energy should be a top priority for our country and our economy, and I applaud the Obama administration for the steps it is taking.

I support giving President Obama the ability to negotiate and complete new trade agreements with some of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

The United States faces structural employment problems because of the long-term effects of globalization and technology. This was only exacerbated by the Great Recession.