"Instinct for the Arts: I had a need for that kind of life. And so I kind of invented it in my head."

"Defining Creativity: How would I define creativity? I for me, it's the, it it's the the ability to take, a risk, to actually put yourself on the line and risk, ridicule, being pilloried, criticized, or whatever. But you have an idea that you you think you wanna, put out there, and you must take that risk."

"The Power of Solitude in Creativity: I was allowed in this very creative time in the day, you know, as light was coming up, to dream. And I dreamt and dreamt and dreamt about futures I might possibly have fantasized, I suppose. So I was in the creative mode from the very beginning, just by being left alone."

"Reflections on Songwriting: You're rewarded for revealing your innermost thoughts, your private emotions on the page for the entertainment of others, for the analysis, the scrutiny of others. And perhaps you've given enough of your privacy away."

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Maybe my best work was when I, started to write in the voices of other people or, put myself in someone else's shoes. I saw the world through their eyes, and and that kind of empathy is is eventually what broke this, writer's block, we'll call it. Just just by sort of stopping thinking about me, my ego, and who I am."

"Finding Inspiration in the Familiar: So it's ironic that the landscape I'd worked so hard to escape from and the community that I'd more or less abandoned and exiled myself from should be the very landscape, the very community I would have to return to to find my missing muse."

"Shipyard Work Ethic: For if Saint Peter at his gate would ask you why you're late, why you tell him that you had to get a ship built?"

"Exploring The Power of Songwriting: Well, I think songwriting can be considered a kind of therapy, and, maybe a kind of, regression therapy, you know, to go back to the beginning. Why are you like you are? Why do you think the way you do? Why do you behave the way you do? And most of the answers are in your childhood."

"Exploring the Power of Dialect in Songwriting: I realized very quickly I was writing in dialect, a dialect that I was brought up in, but I haven't used, and I don't use. In fact, I only use it unconsciously when I get angry."

"Deeper Self-Reflection: Where my true happiness lies has got nothing whatever to do with any of that. It's it's basically just comfort and being who I am, and it's it's it's it's deeper. It's at a deeper level."