Those are important, but there is still a need for any youngster who has any scientific interest at all to continue the lead that we have on technology in the world today, if we are interested in the future of the United States.

Be true to yourself. Find your own voice and be true to that voice. Never take a bad idea, but never turn down a good idea. And, of course, have final cut. And be true to the ideas.

Seeing that the past dictatorships were only capable of creating misery and crippling hope, how absurd to pretend to cure the evils of one extreme dictatorship by means of its opposite! No one in Central America has the right to fear freedom, no one is entitled to preach absolute truths. The evils of one dogma are the evils of any dogma. They are all the enemies of human creativity.

if there is anyone who’s telling you, “Here’s what you should do,” they are somehow lying to you

Of course you start to question yourself and ask “Is this really the right thing?” but my gut feeling always seems to lead me in the right direction and I just knew I needed to do this.

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.

To just chill out and not worry. Growing up, I worried about every little thing. I was like, "oh I'm not good enough, I'm not confident enough, I'm not pretty enough, I'm not this and that." I would cry about my appearance, and cry about a bunch of things that don't matter to me now. I would just say, the stuff that matters now won’t matter in a few years, and just chill out and enjoy your life.

I don't write as often as a lot of artists I know. I save [my songwriting] for a period of time, so I bank up a lot of ideas and a lot of feelings, and then, not even necessarily on purpose, it becomes an album.

I had a bunch. When I was young, I really loved the Black-Eyed Peas and The Gorillas and bands like that. And then as I got older, I discovered Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill and older singers like Etta James. I gravitated towards a lot of young women who just played guitar and had great voices and wanted to emulate them in whatever I did, so they really inspired me.

This is something I still have to learn and figure out because I'm not perfect at it yet — but I've learned that just even something as simple as breathing properly can be a really nice form of meditation. Also talking to people about it. I started going to therapy, which has been really helpful just to get it out. Of course for me as a songwriter, writing helps. So does taking things a day at a time and stopping to just breathe because I'm a person who really thinks so far in advance all the time.