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I do very few standards. Hardly any. Other people's tunes that I do are usually obscure tunes, for the most part, although I do a couple of Duke Ellington tunes that are well known.

I've just always been around great songwriters. To me, they were the standard.

I always had a standard of, back when I was doing the country music I always told people I would never record a song that I wouldn't sit down and sing in front of my mom and dad.

When you're recording classic songs, you've got to kind of make them your own, and you can't always worry about what people are going to think.

When I look at the majority of my own songs they really came from my own sense of personal confusion or need to express some pain or beauty - they were coming from a universal and personal place.

The greatest thing about music is everyone has their own style, and I respect all styles of music.

I am not a music snob. If anything, my musical taste is bad by any critical standards.

I always felt like there was a certain standard of music that I had to do from the beginning, even when I didn't have the recognition that I have now.

I'm not really good at anyone's songs but my own.

I'll probably never put out another album because I'm a tough critic of my work, and I don't think I could come up to those standards any more.