I've read somewhere that when you're writing, you should stop while you're doing well so you always want to go back to work.

Hey, I didn't make a big deal out of Hotel California. The 18 million people that bought it did.

Money was a much saner goal than adoration. They'll both drive you crazy but if I'm going to blow my brains out for five years, I want something to show for it.

We set out to become a band for our time. But sometimes if you do a good-enough job, you become a band for all time.

If you're writing songs by yourself, who's going to tell you if it's good or not? But if you're writing songs with somebody else, you get that immediate feedback.

I read the Life magazine articles about free love and free dope in California. At age 20 I drove to Los Angeles.

It's a losing proposition, but one you can't refuse. It's the politics of contraband, it's the smuggler's blues.