American Quotes

I'm not here to change the music world, but I'm definitely here to show what I can do and express myself through my music.

I'd love to work with Sufjan Stevens. He so gets it. He's amazing.

I will always appreciate 'American Idol,' and I never forget about where I come from.

I think I can connect with an audience because I know what it's like to be on the other side of it and I really remember all of that.

I think a big part of 'American Idol' that scares people and actually has, I'm sure, stopped people from trying out is the fact that you do have to do things that are necessarily not your genre.

I overthink a lot of things.

I love Soundgarden, I love Rage Against the Machine, Simon & Garfunkel.

I love performing.

I love knowing that people are connecting to my lyrics, my music and me.

I like blue a lot, and greens. Earthy blues and greens.

I know who I am as an artist. I've always known who I am as an artist.

I know what it's like to be shoveling to pay bills. I know what it's like to not have a job.

I have goals that I want to reach, but you can never plan what's going to happen next.

I have a pretty wide range of musical tastes.

I don't like to have really any expectations for myself.

Food in Chicago is the best.

Doing charity work is always cool. It's always a good thing.

Bagel in the morning is the ultimate breakfast for me; they're just good.

In real life, I don't fall in love with the guy who wines and dines me, I fall in love with the flaws and the humanity.

I'm always studying something or trying to learn something, keep myself creatively occupied, because I think that energy can get kind of destructive if it doesn't have somewhere to go.

I think actors always have that fear of unemployment so when the opportunities are there, you just jump on them.

I like exploring both the light parts and the dark parts of a single person. And all of those shades tend to come out most acutely in stories about families.

I know that every actor that I know, when Daniel Day-Lewis does a film, and he doesn't work that often, but we run to the theater to see what he's up to, and with such delicious excitement. The same goes for Meryl Streep.

I kind of moved out of the town I grew up in as quick as I could. I left right after high school.

I grew up in the suburbs.

I feel lucky to be an actor because you always learn something from each part you play.

I don't want to put a pause on the rest of my life; I'm really enjoying getting older and the wisdom that comes from that.

And I think a lot of us have fantasies of going back to where we're from, or when we do go back we're so nostalgic about it.

Shirley Maclaine once said that she didn't want to be a big star, just a long star. That's what I want too.

If that's the way the game is played, I don't want to play anymore.