The poets down here don't write nothin' at all, they just stand back and let it all be.

I don't want to make a record like in the '50s or the '60s or the '70s. I want to make a record like today, that`s right now.

That Elvis, man, he is all there is. There ain't no more. Everything starts and ends with him. He wrote the book. But for him, I'd be selling encyclopedias right now. There have been a lotta tough guys. There have been pretenders. And there have been contenders. But there is only one king.

I'm not in any rush. I'm not somebody who, if I write a song, I get it out. That's not something I've ever really quite done.

The light from the oncoming train focuses the mind.

All you can do is show people...You tell stories that are true and compelling.

By the time I was 19, my parents weren't very authoritative over my life.I didn't have any doubt about that - at that time about what I was going to do or where I was going. I was a musician. I was going to play. I had a band. We were going to make enough money to survive on.