I wouldn't buy somebody's album on a dare if they called him a musician's musician. I don't write to be a writer's writer. I don't want to be like the little-magazine writer.

You need to see a bit of hell now and then. That, and great joy.

Voice comes to you through a spell, a trance. The best voices are not you... they're a little away from you.

The point is to strip down, get protestant, then even more naked. Walk over scorched bricks to find your own soul. Your heart a searching dog in the rubble.

The Deep South might be wretched, but it can howl.

I grew up when people seemed actually to be hurting themselves for their art. Of course, some of it was phony.

I wake my wife up at 3 a.m. and say, "Listen to this!"