I wanted to understand things and then be free of them. I needed to learn how to telescope things, ideas. Things were too big to see all at once, like all the books in the library-everything laying around on all the tables. You might be able to put it all into one paragraph or into one verse of a song if you could get it right.

If I had rubies, riches, and crowns, I'd buy the whole world and change things around.

I'm not a playwright. The people in my songs are all me.

Socialism, hypnotism, patriotism, materialism, fools making laws for the breaking of jaws.

Art can lead you to God. I think that's the purpose of everything. If it's not doing that, what's it doing? It's leading you the other way. It's certainly not leading you nowhere.

I'm looking for a woman who's head is mixed up like mine.

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.