Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same.

Things go up and down. If you can survive the down, it will come back.

Whatever meaning 'Annie's Song' had for me on a personal level, there was also a larger context. It could just as easily have been about love for a brother. Or a father. Or a friend. It could just as easily have been a prayer.

What one man can do is dream. What one man can do is love. What one man can do is change the world.

I get an awful lot of fan mail, and I read all that I can.

I was never trying to write a hit. I was just trying to write good songs and get a message out, and it was my great good fortune to be popular.

Heck, I'm no Henry Mancini or Michel Legrand. I just play the guitar and write songs.