I think what people call genre is just a question of orchestration. So, for instance, with Punch Brothers, you look at that band and say that's a bluegrass band, when really it's an orchestration choice.

My favorite bar in New York City is called Milk and Honey, a great cocktail bar.

The name 'Clara' is significant in my life. When I was an adolescent and started thinking about my place in the world as an adult and growing up, I knew I would have an eventually new outlook on things and eventually meet someone and have a kid. In my mind, I was like, 'If I have a daughter, I want to name her Clara.'

Everything in our lives is encouraging us to turn inward with all the technology that we have available to us.

Music should never be a dictatorship. It should be a symbiotic relationship between the musician and the audience.

I'm slow by nature; even if I write something fast, I'll let it sit for a month and hem and haw over it.

I love music with everything I have, and when I am in a front of a classroom talking about music sometimes someone will ask me a question and it reminds me to really think about something, to really feel something.

You go to the Grammys and you say, 'I don't care if I win or not,' and of course you care.

For me, music always leads. Lyrics are only about how they sing. It is wonderful if they read well, too. In the very best scenario, sometimes a lyric will pop out with a melody, simultaneously. That's a lovely thing, but you can't rely on that.

Growing up in a bluegrass or acoustic-oriented world, the musicians become so focused on performance, as far as playing. We tend to overanalyze the notes, so you're always trying to sharpen everything up.

I was raised fundamentalist Christian, and now I'm not that. It was not an act of rebellion or anything. For me, it was about being in a line of work where I was meeting so many different people and feeling like they all had legitimate points of view that I needed to consider and occasionally these were at odds with ideas that I was raised with.

For me to be able fight in my home state of New York would be a dream come true.

I grew up taking the Long Island Railroad from Baldwin, New York into Penn Station and walking upstairs to Madison Square Garden. Those are some of my favorite memories.

When you're so physically and emotionally invested in something - like you have to be in MMA - there's nothing like having your friends and family there to support you on fight night.

I've been blessed enough to live some of my dreams.

You don't wanna peak too early in training camp, but you don't wanna be out of shape or not to the point where you're able to peak. It's a science to be able to find the happy medium where your body and mind are at their best.

When I've trained as hard as I possibly can through training camp and I come to the end, where my body is worn out and I'm tired, I know I'm ready to peak.

The first thing I do when I book a fight is I go to the Internet and I print out a picture of the guy and put it on my refrigerator.

For me, preparation is all about the physical, the mental and most importantly, the spiritual. If I'm not spiritually in the right place, I'm a mess.

When I'm getting ready for a fight - when I'm in that locker room or I'm making that walk and I finally get to the Octagon - it's all spiritual.

When I'm spiritually in the right place, there's no stopping me.

You're always trying to feel confident and to feel good about yourself, but what it comes down to is really giving up to someone else. Having faith.

Training is my life. It's all I've known since I was in second grade, when I started wrestling.

I wanna get myself in such good shape that no matter how much I push myself in a fight, I know that the other guy is gonna be a little bit more tired.

My training varies so much. There's no such thing as a typical day.

I'll never be outworked.

Boxing, Jiu Jitsu, some good old-fashioned wrestling and plenty of cardio. You name it, it's part of my routine.

Keeping my focus on what's important - inside the Octagon and out - is never lost on me.

I remember watching Anderson Silva fight Dan Henderson at UFC 82. I had never really watched MMA, but I looked up to Dan Henderson. He was a wrestler, like me, but also a tough, powerful mixed martial artist.

I was living out on Long Island in Baldwin, New York when Hurricane Sandy hit. With the storm surge, the whole first floor of our house was under about three feet of water. We lost a lot of valuable stuff - sentimental stuff like pictures and Christmas ornaments. Nobody expected flooding that bad.

I grew up in a rough neighborhood, so I fought a lot. Even when I was wrestling, if I lost a match, I always thought, That guy would never beat me in a fight.

From the very beginning, every time I trained for a fight, I didn't train to beat the guy I was fighting. I trained to beat Anderson Silva.

When I was at 205, it was kind of weird eating whatever I want and not getting trimmed and not really being disciplined with my diet. It was kind of weird.

I have a Gracie background and a Matt Serra background so I've always used jiu-jitsu but it takes a while to reach black belt level.

Rankings don't mean much to me but I'm working towards being the pound-for-pound best in everyone's mind.

Being the guy that ended the run of the greatest fighter ever will always be attached to my name.

I've beaten Anderson twice, then Lyoto Machida and now Belfort. I'll be proud to have taken down three all-time legends in a row.

The thing about mixed martial arts is you have to know every single martial art in the world or you're at a disadvantage. So, there's so much to learn. I have to know wrestling. I have to know kick boxing. I have to know boxing. I have to know karate.

I like to compete. So, any time I get to go live - which means go all out - that's what I like to do.

Any time you're banged up, your body hurts, you don't really feel like going to the gym. That's when I feel like you really have to push through it. That's when you really make the leaps and bounds in your game. So, pushing through those days is never easy, but that's what gets you good.

Getting hit is part of the job. You don't want the first time you're getting punched to be in the fight because there's a lot of shock and awe and you won't react well. I like to get hit in sparring. I don't want to get concussed, or I don't want to be getting knocked out, but I want some shock treatment to prepare me for the fight.

I think there's times where I'm introverted, and there's times where I'm extroverted.

There's times where you get the loud, crazy comments from me, and there's times where I say basic things, and stay quiet because I don't want to cause any drama. Sometimes I'm in the mood where I'm just going to tell it how it is, and have fun. And whoever doesn't like it, OK.

Everybody has a sinful nature pulling them at every turn.

I struggle just like everybody else struggles. It's always a struggle in life to overcome temptation. I just try and get through it. No one is perfect.

I think wrestling is the one of the greatest sports there are.

My ultimate goal was always that I want to be known as one of the greatest of all time. The first step was obviously to be UFC champion.

I really like Cain Velasquez. I like his pace that he puts on; he is mentally and physically breaking everybody he goes with. He's just tenacious and relentless. I like Anderson Silva, too. I like his style. He's very relaxed.

When I started and first got to the MMA gym the guys would start and say, 'You're like the All-American kid.' It was because, I don't know, I go to church every Sunday, I got married young and I've always been an All-American in college having gone All-American all four years.

I expect the worst of every situation, so if it does happen I'm prepared for it.