Michael Penn

To me, playing with words is like playing with your food. You shouldn't do it.

— Michael Penn

That was a real debate for me whether to change my name, which I felt was a lie, or to make up…

— Michael Penn

Knowing when it is over is the beginning of a new life and the end of an old one.

— Michael Penn

What if I were Romeo in black jeans?

— Michael Penn

If folk is the music of the common people and not the intellectual elite, then that's what rock is.

— Michael Penn

I'm an oblique guy.

— Michael Penn

I just had a real visceral, negative reaction to show-biz familes. They tend to be a freakish celebrations of dysfunction. Like a…

— Michael Penn

I used to be paranoid for a couple reasons.

— Michael Penn

I've never been too comfortable with the whole between-song-banter thing.

— Michael Penn

Just talking about the schedule and logistics of a tour is fine, but if the interview gets into lyrics and the music…

— Michael Penn

I got into music when I was pretty young, and there were a lot of shining lights to me.

— Michael Penn

I wouldn't balk at having a hit single, because it would allow me some of the freedom to do some of the…

— Michael Penn

I've been writing songs since I was a kid. You just hope that you get better.

— Michael Penn

If you talk about, say, 'Romeo and Juliet,' most people will think of it as a play about the highest form of…

— Michael Penn

If I was good at talking about my music, I'd be a lecturer or a teacher.

— Michael Penn

I've always loved working in the studio. I can point up nuances and detail in songs that I can't live.

— Michael Penn

If somebody were to have told me that I wasn't gonna get signed with a label deal until the end of my…

— Michael Penn

There was actually a rock poetry class at my school.

— Michael Penn

Record companies are like cat breeders who find a breed they can make some money off of, in-breed it until it's sickly…

— Michael Penn

The Beatles, Dylan and Rolling Stones are definitely my earliest roots.

— Michael Penn

I've always felt rock is folk music.

— Michael Penn

People get signed to labels by an executive who wants to make his mark at the label.

— Michael Penn

When I talk about pop music needing someone dangerous, I wish that could be me.

— Michael Penn

I was not a sports guy in school; I was in the geeky music clique. We shared a spot on the quad…

— Michael Penn

I sort of felt like, as the black sheep, I didn't want to go into the family business; everyone would think it…

— Michael Penn