Never be rigid in your thinking, be open.

Before I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer a year and a half ago, I rather jauntily told the readers of my memoirs that when faced with extinction I wanted to be fully conscious and awake, in order to “do” death in the active and not the passive sense. And I do, still, try to nurture that little flame of curiosity and defiance: willing to play out the string to the end and wishing to be spared nothing that properly belongs to a life span. However, one thing that grave illness does is to make you examine familiar principles and seemingly reliable sayings. And there’s one that I find I am not saying with quite the same conviction as I once used to: In particular, I have slightly stopped issuing the announcement that “Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

Football has taught me not to be led by obstructions and setbacks but instead to be led by dreams.

Don’t answer every question you’re asked.

It was very challenging at first, as I came straight out of high school where my lifestyle was so different to that of a professional musician. I lived such a secluded life – I went from school to home, school to home, and never travelled anywhere. I hadn’t figured out who I was, as I hadn’t explored anything yet. To jump into the completely opposite lifestyle so quickly and so young was difficult – I was very afraid, and didn’t know how to say no.

That's always been a tough thing. I've always struggled with staying present and not worrying too much about the future or the past. I'm always either dwelling on the past, or missing the past, or worrying about the future. So that's been a big challenge, because this type of lifestyle goes extremely fast.

I wanted to have one part of my social media that was just for me to post pictures. If you like it, you can like it. If not, I don't have to know that you don't like it because people have a lot of opinions, which is fine, but I think there's a difference between having an opinion and just being mean for no reason.

It’s the world that's messed up, and it’s the world’s twisted view of what beauty should be. They need to change, it’s never you.

I started going to therapy, which has been really helpful just to get it out. Of course for me as a songwriter, writing helps.

Yeah, I think I would’ve talked to people more and learned more. Throughout my high school years I was very quiet, I didn’t have many friends. I distanced myself from a lot of people. I don’t know why, I don’t really think there was a particular reason, just my personality—I didn’t really try to make friends or talk to people outside of the two people that I talked to, you know what I mean? I would’ve definitely tried to make more friends and not worry what people would think of me if I talked to them. And learn a lot more, ask more questions, and absorb as much as I could. I definitely tried, but I don’t know if tried hard enough.