Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.

Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.

I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.

The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.

Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.

The only way to be happy is to realise how much depends on how you look at things

Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them.

Everyone wants a better life: very few of us want to be better people.

The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone.

Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own - but that we could never have described on our own.

There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.

I'm competitive to a fault, so of course every week I'm just like, "I want to win, I want to do great."

I spent a majority of my life in Kansas City, so I am a Chiefs and Royals guy. I used to work for the Royals for like five years in the suites department and in the stadium club restaurant.

I'm admittedly a record guy. Singles and I are a different beast. I'm definitely an overall picture thinker.

There's definitely a visual aspect and an emotional aspect to a song. And that harks back, for me, to theater.

It's amazing what a spray-on tan will do.

I got to play with ZZ Top and introduce Bryan Adams and George Michael. And to have it all topped off by me winning 'American Idol?!' It's pretty absurd.

I absolutely think the Seattle grunge sound was instrumental to my music education.