I was a little self-centered gutter punk in the early 1980s and all I wanted to do was diss everybody.

She was probably the girl I loved the most of all my girlfriends, but also the toughest one to make things work out with. If I had put that much effort into any of my other relationships, I'd be married with five kids now.

Writing music always happened for me in periods when I wasn't under the influence of mind-altering substance.

When I looked into her eyes, I saw an invisible spirit of something that I already loved.

I've wanted to feel pleasure to the point of insanity. They call it getting high, because it's wanting to know that higher level, that godlike level. You want to touch the heavens, you want to feel glory and euphoria, but the trick is it takes work. You can't buy it, you can't get it on a street corner, you can't steal it or inject it or shove it up your ass, you have to earn it.

I knew there was never anyone to blame when people get into drugs. They're always responsible for their own behavior, and it's not the dealer, it's not the friend, it's not the bad influence, it's not the childhood.

The road is not a problem. It's not any more tempting. People don't come up with giant bags of drugs or gallons of alcohol and say, 'You've got to do this.' It happens to me more at home.