I never went to college - I barely got out of high school.
— Dave Matthews
I do still get shocked every once in a while when I catch my reflection when I'm walking past a glass building, but it's in my mind about getting older and finding out what I'm going to look like as it unfolds - or as it folds, depending on where the marks and scars land.
We look to our leaders once we elect them to either lead us in the right direction or at least not crush us.
I think I am a very kind person. I think I'm joyful, but I could be kinder and I could be more joyful. I do believe peace is a state of grace, and not the absence of violence.
The idea that we're somehow centrally important to the planet's existence is pretty comical - although I'd like us to be.
I want to figure out a way to not be stupid with money, then make a whole bunch of it, then I want to move to Outer Mongolia. I want to milk a yak. Maybe I'll just settle for a cow. Can you milk a bison?
For me, in songwriting, I have a route I can take. Maybe there's some forks, I can go this way, this way. But I know those roads. I still have the experience behind me.
I find a therapy in playing music, in many different ways.
When I look at how fortunate I've been, being a musician... my response to being overpaid is that I should pay it back to my community in some way.
My songs are like a three-legged dog - you have to get to know them to have any love for them.
I'm partly obsessed by aging gracefully.
I'm a fairly tormented artist, and I'm less willing to indulge myself in self-pity, outside of songwriting.
Well, I've been in a few car wrecks.
There's a freedom to being young that is harder to come by as time goes on.
I don't think socialism, and I don't think warmness and respect are necessarily bad words.
We have to be active about kindness and about peace. I've always fantasized that it would be great if there was a Department of Peace.
Being a white South African, I enjoyed the better things that that country gave to a small percentage of its population.
I was regularly advised not to go into music, that I should give up that foolish dream.
When I write the set, I try to create something that will not only be interesting for the audience, but will have a flow for the band, too, so we don't get boring.
I think some people would say that I do overwhelm the words with the music, and sometimes thank goodness I do.
The reason I play music is to touch people - for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it's a kiss, a painting, good idea or it's a song.
So often we talk about saving the planet, but what we really mean is to save the planet the way it is, so we can live here. So that is can sustain us. Because the planet doesn't need to be saved. It doesn't care if all the squirrels, elephants, and trees die and there's just a couple of amoebas floating around at the poles.
I found there's a fairly blatant racism in America that's already there, and I don't think I noticed it when I lived here as a kid. But when I went back to South Africa, and then it's sort of thrust in your face, and then came back here - I just see it everywhere.
I've always been obsessed by visual art as I have been by music personally, but that doesn't mean anything professionally.
I've never been much of a craftsman, in an educated way. But I think just the experience of writing makes the avenues I follow a little more efficient in some ways. At the same time, when you're young, you're a little more fearless, and there's less of an internal critic.
In so many areas of life, I'm a spaz and incompetent.
If I find something I like, I'll chase it and see what comes out the other side. Once a song gets momentum and gets away from you, that's a good sign.
The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there's not a puppet master.
Success turns a lot of people off. I have a pretty solid sense of joy and respect that irritates people, and can irritate me, too.
I'm a bit of a caveman - I don't go out into the digital space very often. I lie facedown on the grass and count how many bugs I can find.
I want to figure out a way to not be stupid with money, then make a whole bunch of it, then I want to move to Outer Mongolia. I want to milk a yak. Maybe I'll just settle for a cow.
We give the podium to a lot of people who shouldn't have the podium. The message that's delivered the loudest and in the most entertaining way is the one that we're going to put on because that's what we want. We want ratings more than we want to deliver information. That's just where the culture's gotten.
I think we should all talk to our enemies and talk to our friends. Talk! That's the only way we'll find solutions.
It's a melting pot, southern Africa. You find these cultural collisions that result in art and music, and it's pretty amazing.
It's funny, I get a little quieter with time. I don't want to chase my tail and one day repeat myself and repeat myself and one day have kids going to college and not have memories that I should, because I was too busy doing my thing.
I'm from a very politically and socially conscious family. My mother always made a point of making us look at what was going on around us and take stock of our part in it.
I think I'm probably a very sad man wrapped in a very joyful package, and I think I'm very resilient, and I think I'm quite generous, sometimes to a fault. And I'm very bad with money, but I don't see that too much of a flaw.
The idea of God as a fatherly figure who looks down on us and worries about how we're doing or takes sides when we have fights - it's more irritating than Santa Claus. The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there's not a puppet master.
There's war - there's always been war, as long as most of us have been alive. There have always been people being abused, there's always been horrible things in the world. Why are we outraged? We should just be quiet and figure it out, and work it out together.
I definitely like the oddballs. There's a song called 'Little Thing,' which is the only song that I have recorded that has no words. And it's the one that I get past my critic inside me.
Being able to scream at the top of my lungs in front of people is very therapeutic. It is a great gift for me to be able to do that.
The saddest part of the human race is we're obsessed with this idea of 'us and them,' which is really a no-win situation, whether it's racial, cultural, religious or political.
I don't think everything is going to get peachy ever. But I think we have to fight for what we believe in.
I use God in my songs a lot but I don't have a relationship. I don't know what that means.
So often we talk about saving the planet, but what we really mean is to save the planet the way it is, so we can live here. So that is can sustain us.
I'm familiar with that feeling of silence that comes with a very imminent catastrophe, when you know you have absolutely no control over a situation.
When I listen to my favorite songwriters, they have such simple melodies and chords. I occasionally manage to stop at the right time, but all too often I keep on going until I have way too many notes and words. But that's just what I do.
I'm a very vicious critic of myself.
I don't believe in trickle-down economics. I don't think that people who have the most are inclined to share it, generally.
Nothing is black or white, nothing's 'us or them.' But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world. There's incredible acts of kindness and bravery, and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.
