Quotes

As a songwriter, I'm not necessarily writing about myself or my life.

Living this life in the same sorta way that Kerouac lived, you get to hang out at shows and drink and you're able to not really face reality and adulthood the way most of my friends are.

What we aspired to in 1998, we have wildly surpassed. And I know we all feel incredibly grateful and lucky this band has been able to have the life that it's had.

I still love 'The Cure' more than almost any other band. But they were really, truly like the first band that I really loved and felt was mine, you know. At a pivotal time in my life when I was 13, 14 years old.

I was making $150 a week in workshop. It was a rough year. I had trouble paying the rent. But I had evenings free to spend with my wife, Olive, and our baby daughter. In terms of family-building, it was one of the most blessed years of my life.

When you think of the people who were important in your life, prettiness was not a factor. They might have been old, fat and toothless - but they were there.

We are living in a culture where we are so led by the visual, and what is promoted in the media, that the attitude becomes, 'I don't have to go through normalcy in life - I can look for exemptions. And I expect them, and when I look for them and they are not there, I am angry.'

Life is short and if you're looking for extension, you had best do well. 'Cause there's good deeds and then there's good intentions. They are as far apart as Heaven and Hell.

You're definitely a different person at different stages in your life.

Sometimes I may be totally arrogant, sometimes I may totally be the most humble guy you've ever met, sometimes I may be in between. But that's life. Who isn't like that? What's the big deal if I had an arrogant moment.

But I would never insult the people that love this music and I would never insult the blessing of music in my life and I would never insult myself by playing uninspired music.

I really feel there's no limitation on what this band can do in the studio or on the stage. That's an empowering feeling - that we can bring a song to life.

In pre-movie days, the business of peddling lies about life was spotty and unorganized. It was carried on by the cheaper magazines, dime novels, the hinterland preachers and whooping politicians.

As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.

I think that our work and our music stands on its own without this knowledge about our identity around it. But I also think that we very consciously decided not to hold back that part of ourselves, but to be very vocal about who we are, kind of what experiences we've had in life, and how we identify.

In life, everybody faces choices between doing what's popular, easy, and wrong vs. doing what's lonely, difficult, and right. These decisions intensify when you run a company, because the consequences get magnified 1,000 fold. As in life, the excuses for CEOs making the wrong choice are always plentiful.

In life, you don't have a level of confrontation and the nonsense you run into when you're a CEO. CEOs aren't born.

The hardest thing about starting a company and running a company is, there's just so many expectations on you, and there are so many people who have things that they want you to do. It's a lot like life about that.

It's the bane of my life and my existence, people telling me to be a little more succinct with what I write.

Songs became little time periods of my life, little tales from certain periods, and you build these kingdoms and memories... they're all little personal relationships and places that I've stored in my head.

I've been going to Ibiza all my life really, since I was a kid.

Surfing and music have always been two separate sides of my life. I'm quite a fun-loving person most of the time, but I feel like I always get the serious side out when I'm playing music, and then I have fun the rest of the time when I get in the sea.

I don't want to ruin my life with paparazzi and all of that.

My wife and I - her more than me - are really strong Christians. Her whole life revolves around studying the Bible, Bible study, after-school Bible class she does for little kids on Wednesdays, teaches Sunday school.

In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.