The nice thing about solo is I don't have to coordinate with anyone else's schedule, since it's hard for me just to have a free 15 minutes here and there.

It's hard to go out in front of people with an acoustic guitar and improvise for 30 or 40 minutes, but I had a compulsion to do it. I just had to in a way that I can't really explain.

I definitely have a different perspective on music in general. But once I actually have a guitar in my hands, I think I disappear into the same black hole that I was disappearing into when I was 15.

I was working at eBay, so I would just troll the vintage categories, find old amps and what have you. I was buying a fair amount of stuff and playing with it and then selling it back.

I don't think I had a specific moment when I thought, "I'm not going to play music anymore." I just played less and got involved in other things.

With Fred McDowell, I just love the way he articulates the notes. I'm hardly unique in that, but there's just something about that that I love.

I did pull out my old Telecaster, and have been thinking I'd like to play that loud with a drummer. But I haven't actually done that yet.

I had opportunities to play with other people and give my self some sort of security, but for some reason I wanted to play solo and just put it out there.

I had a guitar sitting around, and it just happened to have four strings on it, and I would sit around watching TV and playing it. I ended up writing bunches of songs around four strings.

A horn has that voice quality, and an electric guitar can emulate that. But playing an acoustic, the notes don't sustain like that.

Until there is no longer the possibility of sadness, of isolation, there can be no gravity. We all float by, rootless, taking clumsy astronaut steps and calling it progress.

I'm not running for president to be somebody, I'm running for president to do something!

Beauty is just a light switch away...'click!' Beauty is not caused. It is.

I was offered a job on Wall Street by my uncle. But I wanted to get out. Make-it-on-my-own kinda thing.

Pity is an emotion that can get you killed. The only thing more dangerous is blind hate, and maybe love.

I may have become Christian, were it not for Christians.

People who have reformed themselves has contributed their full share towards the reformation of their neighbor.

Unless I'm really uneasy with what I'm writing, I lose interest very quickly.

I no longer believe in freedom of speech.

The great charm of cats is their rampant egotism, their devil-may-care attitude toward responsibility, their disinclination to earn an honest dollar.