To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.
It's amazing what some people read into songs.
The best thing you've got going for you is individuality.
I probably wrote three-quarters of the songs without an instrument in my hands.
I try to make songs visual and tactile to kind of put you into the action.
All audiences should be slightly off balance.
What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.
I just like to entertain myself by sitting down and writing songs.
Amplifying acoustic instruments more than a little is really cheating, and everything becomes a compromise.
I have to remind myself not to set boundaries.
I like the idea of playing in unison with yourself.
You want the audience to be uncomfortable.
When you stand up acoustic in front of an audience, you really are a man without any clothes on. And that can be fun - it depends how much of an exhibitionist you are, I suppose. I quite enjoy it.
I'm glad there are a lot of guitar players pursuing technique as diligently as they possibly can, because it leaves this whole other area open to people like me.
There's a part of me that wishes I'd never said one single solitary word on any subject publicly. Then I could have been the tortured poet, and there's so much mileage in that. But it's too late to stop now.
I'm always making a conscious effort to be viable and accessible.
I think the reason kids get into drugs and smoking is they don't have anything to do.
As the writer, you're always a presence in the song. If you get close to what human beings are like, you're writing about common experience. We all do much the same things, so if you nail somebody, then you've also nailed yourself.
The thing I do, really, is a communication with audiences more than any achievement through records.
Well, first of all it's entertainment. That stops us becoming too pretentious or thinking we're great artists.
