I don't separate writing songs from poetry and short fiction. In the area where I work in my house, there's a word processor and a guitar.

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

America's criminal justice system isn't known for rehabilitation. I'm not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

I don't believe that songwriting has to be profound, but I truly believe that it's a crime for you to go outta your way for it not to be.

I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre.

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.

Every day on Earth is another chance to get it right.

I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.

You are truly home only when you find your tribe

Any time you can gain clarity and higher meaning, you allow more inner peace and more prosperity.

What fascinated me mostly about Mickey Cohen was that he, in his later years, hired someone to help him to comprehend literature, to help him to read better, to understand words better.

Both science and art have to do with ordered complexity.

Many demons are in woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in dark poolly places ready to hurt...people.

I adore him I have never been so happy. I have real love.

True humility scarcely ever utters words of humility.

In the arms of the angel, fly away from here....you are pulled from the wreckage, of your silent reverie, you're in the arms of the angel, may you find some comfort here.

Not only a truer knowledge, but a greater power comes to one in the quietude and silence of a mind that, instead of bubbling on the surface, can go to its own depths and listen.