I always thought I was commercial. I always thought I was writing hit singles. These days, whatever's on the radio is considered commercial. People like what's on the radio, whatever it is.

The first time I met Patti Smith was in a laundromat. We knew some of the same people, including Richard Hell.

I just don't like people coming up to me and saying something. It immediately makes you become insincere. There is no way you can react to it sincerely.

When I think of 'influence', I think of 'influenza', like somebody's picked up a germ.

The song Venus de Milo, the whole subject of it is Love is a drug.

I never liked mellow sounding guitar.

You can't get so interested in just making sounds. The point of it all is some kind of expression.

Practice? I never practice. I just write songs and take solos.

I like thinking of myself as invisible. I find it a very advantageous way to live.

Everybody's out trying to be commercial. I'm not trying to be anything, really.

When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone.

When you celebrate a person, you are celebrating the creator of that person

Let's not be afraid...there is always a step after the last step.

She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honour, for love.

The contented person finds rest in death, and for the greedy person, death puts an end to his long list of desires.

Practice, work hard and give it everything you've got.

People shouldn't really have to think about an object when they are using it. Not having to think about it makes the relationship between a person and an object run more smoothly.

Definition of a victim: a person to whom life happens.

Whatever I thought right, to others seemed wrong; what I held to be bad, others approved of.

I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without a Bible.