Forget about acquiring new people. If you service your audience they will get you new fans.

People say they want shorter, but really want something that rivets them. They've got endless time for great.

When done right, music should breathe, be alive. It's not about getting it perfect, it's about capturing lightning in a bottle.

It's a privilege to play music fora living. Even more, it's a privilege to have an audience. Respect that.

Opportunities are abundant, but most people are afraid to do the work

Inspiration comes from displacement. Get out of your comfort zone, the rewards are legion.

If you're not a successful artist it's your fault.

There's very little greatness in this world, but in the crucible of quality there's a special corner reserved for Van Halen.

You think everybody's paying attention to what you're doing. No, they're paying attention to what's interesting to them.

You can't fight hearts and minds with money.

Artists are tuning forks. Their goal is to create resonance in the audience.

Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.

One thing you'll learn as you get older, Simon, is that when people tell you something unpleasant about themselves, it's usually true.

A bath and a tenderloin steak. Those are the high points of a man's life.

People are always asking me if I'm Lynyrd Skynyrd or which one's Skynyrd, but I always say, 'Who'd ever have a dumb name like that?'

Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later.

Reading is a majority skill but a minority art. Yet nothing can replace the exact, complicated, subtle communion between absent author and entranced, present reader.

I love whiskey and haggis. I can't get enough of either.

Swiss Cheese is a rip-off It's the only cheese I can bite into and miss

I felt better about myself that I did it [calling Max Askeli Commander Askeli], rather than have - rather than thinking it and not writing it for being afraid of what might happen to me.