I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes. You'd know what a drag it is to see you.

I need all kinds of songs - fast ones, slow ones, minor key, ballads, rumbas - and they all get juggled around during a live show. I've been trying for years to come up with songs that have the feeling of a Shakespearean drama, so I'm always starting with that.

The ghosts race towards the light, you can almost hear the heavy breathing spirits, all determined to get somewhere. New Orleans, unlike a lot of places you go back to and that don't have the magic anymore, still has got it. Night can swallow you up, yet none of it touches you. You can't see it, but you know it's here. Somebody's always sinking.

I met a young man who was wounded in love, I met another man who was wounded in hatred.

Everything's a business. Love, truth, beauty. Conversation is a business. Spirituality is not a business, so it's going to go against the grain of people who are trying to exploit other people.

Every brain is civilized, Every nerve is analyzed, Everything is criticized when you are in need.

Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.