My songs were influenced not so much by poetry on the page but by poetry being recited by the poets who recited poems with jazz bands.

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

Bent out of shape from society's pliers, cares not to come up any higher, but rather get you down in the hole that he's in.

In songs, you have to tell people about something they didn't see and weren't there for, and you have to do it as if you were.

You just don't wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

Look at the sun sinkin' like a ship. Ain't that just like my heart, babe. When you kissed my lips?

May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung. May you stay forever young.