Rumi will transform you, in ways you didn’t know you needed transforming.

My own theory is that people are just so desperate for somebody they can feel better than, in America. Now that everyone's going broke and working 17 jobs - if they have one at all - at least they can look at these guys behind bars and think, "At least I get to wear my own clothes to work."

I think there's a phenomenon of people who want to be around something that seems "dangerous." It makes them feel more real.

I always tell myself, when I remember the non-stop self-generated hell party that used to be my life, I wouldn't be here if I didn't go there.

I need - and occasionally love - to write for the same reasons I always did: hard as writing is, it's generally easier than life.

It's not like I was an alkie or anything. Alcohol is for cleaning needles

Jake La Botz is a creator of dark poetry and haunting song, the kind of music that gets in your bones and rides you for days, a sound and vision only those who've been to the bottom and clawed their way back up can generate. His midnight gifts evoke Hank Williams and Skip James as much as Tom Waits and Dylan. Not everybody will get this music - because not everybody is ready for the truth.