I fell in love with the legend of Paul Robeson as a kid. My dad would tell me all these amazing stories about his life and, bizarrely, ended up singing to Robeson on his deathbed.
The moment you have children, it's like your heart gets out of your body, puts on clothes, and walks away.
My only incentive is to write music that changes me, where the process of making it is a discovery and is true in some way, at that moment.
I think everyone in their 30s looks back at their 20s and thinks, 'Oh God, if I'd just done this and this, and not done that.'
I'm obsessed with pilgrimages. I love following old routes, imagining the consciousness of those who walked them.
Our job as actors is to invent the things that bridge ourselves with the characters, so you have to build something if it's not there - you try and learn what makes people behave in a certain way.
My dad was an actor, and he always said that work was work; you can't turn your nose up at it. We didn't have much money when I was growing up, and he had this real work ethic, which I inherited.
I imagine that, for most people, acting isn't something they think is a viable option, whereas for me, it was the most viable option. No adults around me knew how to do anything else.
If you're trying to do something wholly new, it's hard to fully trust it. But if you use forms that have come before, it lends your music weight and authority. It's also a way to acknowledge that it's not just you who's feeling these things. The emotions are coming through you from a whole history.
The world that I know and the world that I come from is from the arts, and my wife's an artist, and I've been a musician since I left college, and there's tons of musicians I'd love to play.
Diane Cluck is part of the anti-folk movement in New York. She's got a really haunting voice, and she usually sings in the pentatonic scale.
My dad was working class.
I'm not really interested in myself in my writing. I can't see myself in the songs, even though I know different parts of me are there.
I'm not a funny person.
I grew up playing classical violin and a lot of Bach and Mozart and the things that Einstein loved.
Music always gets bumped until I have some time to get around to it.
I think Bob Odenkirk is phenomenal.
There's something amazing about 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Office' only being two series. I think, when you really nail it, you don't need to do more than two or three.
I've been cast in a lot of comedies. I've done things like multi-cam sitcoms: you know, 'Seinfeld' type... not as good as 'Seinfeld,' but that kind of thing. I love that stuff.
Certain films should only be watched at 40,000 feet. Like, certain comedies and certain, uh, emotionally charged movies.
