Anything I can sing, I call a song. Anything I can't sing, I call a poem.

I can't see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That's terrible.

A song is like a dream, and you have to make it come true. They're like strange countries that you have to enter. You can write a song anywhere, in a railroad compartment, on a boat, on horseback -- it helps to be moving. Sometimes people who have the greatest talent for writing songs never write any because they are not moving.

Sometimes people ask songwriters what a song means, not realizing if they had more words to explain it they would've used them in the song.

At certain times I read a lot of poetry. My favorite poets are Shelley and Keats. Rimbaud is so identifiable. Lord Byron. I don't know. Lately if I read poems, it's like I can always hear the guitar. Even with Shakespeare's sonnets I can hear a melody because it's all broken up into timed phrases so I hear it. I always keep thinking, 'What kind of song would this be?'

Man down is a song about a girl who has committed a murder that she regrets and is completely remorseful about.