Biggest lesson I've ever had in life is that blues had a baby and they named it rock 'n' roll.

I don't do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally causes trouble. I'm proud to be a troublemaker.

Women are to be valued for so much more than their sexuality. We aren’t merely objects of desire.

I understand that we are actually complicated people but we are also dreadfully simple.

I don't believe in any kind of artistic snobbery or musical snobbery. You know, to me, the sexiest and the most spiritual words ever uttered in rock and roll are wop babaloo balop bam boom.

Maybe it was mean, but I really don't think so. You asked for the truth and I told you.

When you dishonor the the utter glory and majesty of black people, you lie. Your heart lies to you and you let it

I grew up in a situation of extreme abuse, but there was no chance to talk about it, so music became the escape if you like.

At some point the entire population of the earth is gonna have to look back at the kind of essence of spirituality which is basically caring about each other.

We have a tradition of passing our history orally and singing a lot of it and writing songs about it and there's kind of a calling in Irish voices when they're singing in their Irish accent.

When I kissed you, you didn't mind. I thought I tasted of too many cigarettes, but you tasted like wine.

End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.

I wonderif I should let my hair go greyso my advice will be better.

Virtue isn't not wronging others but not wishing to wrong others.

And then one day when you're playing your little game you'll suddenly find yourself pinned down like a butterfly.

It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

History is a novel which did take place; a novel is history that could take place.

We passed over in a sweep of sorrow that would persist into our small forever. We just keep going.

I veer away from trying to understand why I act. I just know I need to do it.

I like to think about the bestseller list as, "This is the medicine cabinet of a very sick country." Let me look and see what they're reading that isn't nourishing them.

And now I know it's hard when you don't know what to think