Writing as a woman presents enormous problems but I have attempted it several times and haven't had many complaints.

I got $30 from Nation magazine for a poem and $500 for my first book of poems.

I couldn't run a tight schedule, and if you're any good at teaching, you get sucked dry because you like your students and you're trying to help them, but you don't have any time left to write yourself.

Sometimes literary critics review the book they wanted you to write, not the book you wrote, and that's very irksome.

If all I did was answer the correspondence I get, that would be my job.

Unlike a lot of writers, I don't have any craving to be understood.

Other than fishing and a little bird-hunting, all I do is write.

I've never been a true fan of the short story and have only published a single example of my own.

Whatever I learned reading 'Scientific American,' nothing can finally compete with your own observations.

We are supposed to write poetry to keep the gods alive.

I had a concussion I didn't get over for three years. I think that's why I'm goofy.

I don't trust anybody that doesn't do good work. I don't give them any credibility. If they can't write, why should I believe anything they have to say?

I couldn't read a screenplay without puking.

I've always been very much attracted to a character that's actually free.

The reviews are getting better, but they always do, in time, if you're still alive.

The person that was closest to me growing up was my sister, who died at 19. She was an incredibly powerful girl, deeply committed to art and literature.

I grew up in an agricultural family, and I never distanced myself from where the food comes from. I think it's quite natural.

Age focuses you. You are much better concentrated. There's more time when you travel less, don't do book tours, avoid interviews or public appearances. You walk the dogs, fish, hunt, cook and write.

I've always been intemperate in my affection for food.

Between the two dream coasts, we're just called flyover country... If you aren't known as an amorphous Eastern Seaboard writer, you're dismissed as a regional author.

I don't want to go around like some kind of bleeding giant or whatever, or thinking I'm a big deal, because it doesn't help you do your work. I think people like Hemingway got into an awful lot of trouble that way.

Riesling? It smells like an intensive care ward.

I feel like everybody's got their health issues and their battles, and yeah, mine go up and down. It's never really over.

I think reading is one of the greatest forms of magic available to us on the planet. Reading is so important.

Once all the power goes out, there will still be human beings standing together around a campfire, playing acoustic guitars.

There's so much chaos and trouble in the world right now, and we need to broadcast as much peace and love, too.

I got really hooked on this riff in the middle of this song called 'Minor Miracles' by my friend Eric Johnson from Fruit Bats. I got the tracks for that from him, and that turned into 'Here in Spirit.'

Moving and motion tends to make things pop up. But things pop up for me, really, at just odd intervals or at random times that aren't really convenient, so I'm a big fan of the voice memo recorder on my phone. That's the only way I can remember things.

The band can't exist without the crowd, and the crowd wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the band, and it really is something magical that people need.

I'd write songs like 'One Big Holiday,' and we'd play it and say, 'It's too heavy for 'At Dawn.' Let's save it for the next one.' We had more time for that, but when you mix a song, the general rule of thumb for us is a song a day or usually a day and a half.

I've gotten into doing electronic books and audiobooks, so I have an iPad. I still love reading a real book, but when you travel, it's better than carrying around a bunch of books.

While I'm working on something, every single part of me is in it. But then, once it's done, I leave that place behind. I usually don't like to revisit it. So it's almost like listening to a different person.

I don't think about taking risks anymore because there aren't any risks to take.

It's a joy, the process itself, even instrumentally, playing and constructing music. It's just so beautiful to me.

There's these things we do that take us into the zone - and we go in that place that I feel like is the place of love that you reach when you're in love or making love, or you're having a good conversation. I feel like that is God.

I always think of albums as the format. I think it's perfect. I don't think you can tamper with that. It's not just sound, the analog, which is so much richer. It's the format. You're constrained by just 45 minutes, and it's perfect to me. I don't want to listen to any more than, and I live and breathe music.

I grew up on, and kind of came of age, during the grunge movement and was introduced to Neil Young and Bob Dylan and grew up on that path.

I feel like the world gets so consumed and gobbled up by action, and the pace of life is so frantic, and people feel like, in order to move somebody, you have to do something shocking or violent or something insane and fast.

Youth is wasted on the young. And it doesn't even matter if you sit a young person down and tell them, 'You're so healthy, take advantage of it before it's gone!' They still can't hear it.

That's the bulk of my lyrical output - being confused and trying to find answers to my confusion.

I've got a studio at home, and I'm always recording.

I just think bad vibes and hate and Trump are getting so much airtime, we need to speak out loud for peace and equality and fairness and make sure we all know that there are a lot of us out here in the world that just want love.

When I was maybe three years old, I was obsessed with this song 'Leader of the Band' by Dan Fogelberg. My mom took me to the mall and bought me a 45 of it. We would listen to that song all the time.

My aunt played upright bass in the Louisville Orchestra, and I was always really impressed by her musical ability. I found it really fascinating as a kid that one could play music for a living.

Somebody brought up the idea of reissuing 'Tribute To 1' because it was out of print on vinyl.

Almost every time I go to the ocean, I think about throwing my phone right into it. Sometimes, you pull that thing out of your pocket, you look at it, and you're like, 'What was I just going to do with this? Was I going to take a note? Was I going to check my email? Was I going to take a picture?'

The gospel funk soul era, that's what I'm obsessed with - pretty much all the '70s through early '80s.

Lou Reed's spirit and the way he did things was so important. Him and his music mean so much to me as the years go by.

'Circuital' was just so much about us as a band. We captured every song live, including the main vocal. That is probably my favorite My Morning Jacket record because it's really the essence of us being us. The solo record is just a completely different essence of just me trying to figure out stuff.

I've just had this idea pop in my head of trying to learn a new song every da, and try and play it that night. That's been fun for me because it's a little bit of a scary adventure, playing a song for the first time in front of people and letting it just be what it is.