You know, as a writer, I'm more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

I've always been trying to write songs like Lightfoot. A song of mine like 'Come Monday' is a direct result of me trying to write a Gordon Lightfoot song.

Especially when you've got your own mail route, day after day, it was an easy place to write. It was like going to a library with no books. You're afforded to just go do your job, and you don't really even have to think about it. You know you're on the right street and you're at the right house, and you're putting the mail in the right box. That's where I wrote a lot of the early songs, walking on the mail route.

A lot of my songs are fantasy. I can dream up all kinds of things. That's the kind of world I live in. It's very sort of flamboyant, and that's the kind of way I write. I love it.

I don't write songs about a specific, elusive thing. I write about love, and everyone knows what it is like to have your heart broken.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.