Around '75 when the recession hit, club owners started going to disco because it was cheaper for them to just buy a sound system than it was to hire a band.

I love the idea of stepping out of the band situation into a solo world with no boundaries, no expectations, where nothing is out of bounds.

Success is fickle, but creativity is a gift.

When I was about 3, my grandfather used to give me and my sister a nickel to sit out on the front porch with him and sing songs.

I'm not the kind of guy who deserves to play a vintage guitar because I'm too rough on instruments.

It was more fun trying to figure out I Want To Hold Your Hand than to take lessons. By this time I knew basic chords

I wish I had a nickel for every song that I've left in the bathroom, written down on a matchbox, or just totally forgotten about

Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.

On acoustic guitar I tend to stay in the key of D for some reason. On electric guitar I keep basic: C, G, D, and A. The key of D minor is also real good for me.

If I have an idea, I write it down, although I usually carry a little dictation machine with me because I'm too lazy to write

I wrote songs all my life, where anyone wanted to hear them or not.

I am trying to ignore each of my thoughts and each of my stories and books... if I read them... they never sound well, but still we shouldn't go like...to do everything perfect and all perfect...

The idea that people in novels should be more sympathetic than people in life simply baffles me.

There are no events but thoughts and the heart's hard turning, the heart's slow learning where to love and whom. The rest is merely gossip, and tales for other times.

Confess and be hanged.

There is a way to be purified, to overcome sorrows and grief, to release suffering, to secure the right path to realize nirvana. This is to be mindful.

An ill agreement is better then a good judgement. [An ill agreement is better than a good judgment.]

I yell at the players if I don't like the way they are playing. But when they're playing well, I hug them.

I certainly did my best to bring the story [Anthem] to life in another medium.

I can't help feeling that there is no beauty without hope, struggle, and conquest.

A new opinion counts as true just in proportion as it gratifies the individual's desire to assimilate the novel in his experience to his beliefs in stock