You want to give people a reason to hate my guts more? I'm making more money.

I see the children with their boredom and their vacant stares.

Sergeant O'Leary is walking the beat, at night he becomes a bar tender.

I had a melody and a rhythm and chords, but nothing to talk about. I remember reading about how the decline of the steel industry had been affecting the Lehigh Valley, and I decided that's what I was going to write the song about.

Take risks. Take chances. Don't be afraid. You gotta go into life brave.

Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue.

I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. ... I'm probably writing music now for the same reason as I started writing songs when I was 14-to meet women. ... If you make music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings. ... My songs are like my kids.