I was a coat-checker at Orso, and all these wonderful actors were coming in, and it was exciting to me, so I started going to classes, and my excuse was, 'I'll be a better songwriter if I can understand how to play a character.' Well, that couldn't be farther from the truth.
I was a coat checker, a dishwasher, a waitress, and those were some of the happiest times of my life because I still got to do my writing. You're lucky when you can work and then do your art.
Most people who are successful don't keep their money. One of the rarest things in the world is to maintain success and integrity - the kinds of things that seem so easy just starting out. But that's the human predicament.
It isn't hard to be an artist and do your money thing. It's much harder to wake up in the middle of the night knowing that you're being ripped off and starting to get this feeling in your stomach almost bordering on bitterness toward people who are saying one thing and doing another.
I used to write songs that were deeply personal, but since I am becoming so passionate about the world around me, that passion and drive is starting to come into my work.