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Songwriting helps me sort out my personal problems. With acting, you're just a tool for someone's ideas.

One of the most frustrating parts about songwriting for me is production, but it makes me want to get better at it and ends up being one of the most rewarding parts of it.

I enjoy recording and performing, but it's the songwriting that I love most.

The key to songwriting is just to be able to observe, and put yourself in situations to be around people, and let those ideas come to you.

I think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive.

Acting and making music are quite complementary. Acting relies on someone else's writing and direction; writing music or lyrics doesn't. But they are both creative and personal in completely different ways.

Writing screenplays makes me a better musician because it clears my head. After writing a movie, I go running back to music as fast as I can.

I love songwriting. It's second to my love for singing in how I express myself.

But if you want to be a songwriter-based musician, whether you play punk or rock or country or jazz, whatever, you have to work on your songwriting and you have to work on being able to play in front of people, I think. That performance is how you create the groundwork for a lasting career.

I've never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I've only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.