I couldn't have imagined how much more there was to lose.

People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find...

Something inexorable seeds itself in the place of your origin. You can never escape the bonds of family history, no matter how far you travel.

It's painful to hold out hope for the things that once brought you joy. You have to find ways to make yourself forget.

My heart is shattered, an all that's left are jagged shards.

I remember her words to me when I left school: Your mind will be your comfort. It is, sometimes. And sometimes it isn't.

I ... am left with the lingering feeling that the places we go in our minds to find comfort have little to do with where our bodies go.

The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance.

To get it all done I have to dim my brain, turn it down by notches like the flat-turn knob on a gas lantern, leaving only a nub of flame.

Do our natures dictate the choices we make, I wonder, or do we choose to live a certain way because of circumstances beyond our control?

This life of ours can feel an awful lot like waiting.

The main thing is finding the time to sit down and write. You have to make the time.

I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.

What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.

The idea of "race" represents one of the most dangerous myths of our time.

I never liked the bar scene. I tried to like it. I would give it a try every three or four months. I'd think, tonight I'm going out. But I never met anybody in that circumstance.

You go in and record and sing them some and you go back in and rerecord and sing them some more. That's kind of how I did this album [The Art of Elegance].

Nature is fun to study, but style is everything.

When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.

If you would be happy all your life, plant a garden.

For nothing burns with such amazing speed, As the dry sticks of a religious creed.