Mothers tell your children not to do the things I have done, to spend my life in sin and misery in the House of the Rising Sun.

I ain't looking to compete with you, beat, or cheat, or mistreat you, simplify you, classify you, deny, defy, or crucify you. All I really want to do is, baby, be friends with you.

and if anybody asks me is it easy to forget I'll say it is easily done, you just pick anyone, and pretend that you never have met

People think that singing and playing is easy. It's not. It's easy to strum along, but if you actually want to really play, where it's important, that's a hard thing and not too many people are good at it.

If ever asked to look at yourself, don't.

My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie...It's not me, it's the songs. I'm just the postman, I deliver the songs...I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

You get older. You start having hopes for other people rather than yourself.