I'll hear something in my head, then eventually play it. But it's a subconscious thing. Most of the time I really don't know what I'm playing.

My first joint I smoked onstage in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I smoked my first joint live.

When I'm with Purple, I'm totally with Purple; when I'm doing my thing, I'm totally doing my own thing.

I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

I can't do anything but play guitar.

You're in direct contact with the music by having the strings under your fingers. It's not mechanical like a piano.

If you're not having fun it's not worth doing.

I came in with a completely new perspective. I would write songs and they would pick tunes they felt were in the Purple vein.

I don't like English bands. They're too structured.

When you come from the Midwest, you have a more open mind than if you come from the West Coast or the East Coast.

I think the way I play the guitar is very percussive. I play a lot of rhythm chops as though I were playing congas or something.

You are freaking me out!" she said with a nervous laugh. "Who are you, and what have you done with Quinn Shaughnessy?

You don't know now and after and before who has watched you and who is watching you and who will continue doing that.

Without a mythology, faith is impersonal and heartless.

I regard irreligious people as pioneers. If there had been no priesthood the world would have advanced ten thousand times better than it has now.

For hours, for days, for years, she had wandered endlessly within herself but never met anybody, nobody.

When I go to Bali, when I come to India and travel and see different cultures. I make sure I'm involved in the world out there, creatively, culturally.

I'm a novelist, so I can't write about ideas unless they're attached to people.

If Mike Tyson is in your courtroom and you don't send him to jail, it's an injustice. Everyone knows he's a bad guy. So if he is in your courtroom, he should go to jail.

Books can warm the heart with friendly words and counsel, entering into a close relationship with us which is articulate and alive

Let heartbreak be alternative to coffe break, five midmorning minutes devoted to emotion.