A lot of people don't have much food on their table. But they got a lot of forks 'n knives. And they got to cut somethin'.

Well, I try my best to be just like I am, But everybody wants you to be just like them, They sing while you slave and I just get bored

People are going to say, ‘Well, it’s not very truthful.’ But a songwriter doesn’t care about what’s truthful. What he cares about is what should’ve happened, what could’ve happened. That’s its own kind of truth. It’s like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name.

With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks, you've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books.

They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and then they make you king.

Nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street.

I was headed for the fantastic lights. No doubt about it. Could it be that I was being deceived? Not likely. I don't think I had enough imagination to be deceived; had no false hope, either. I'd come from a long ways off and had started from a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else.