A rose looks grey at midnight, but the flame is just asleep. And steel is strong because it knows the hammer and white heat.

Stop your ears and close your eyes and try to find the face of love.

Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way.

I wear black for those who never read or listen to the words that Jesus said, about the road to happiness, through love and charity.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read

In the Air Force, I had an old Wilcox Gay recorder, and I used to hear guitar runs on that recorder going (vocalizing) like the chords on "I Walk The Line." And I always wanted to write a love song using that theme, that tune.

[My father] did every kind of work imaginable from painting to shoveling to herding cattle. And he's always been such an inspiration to me because of the very kinds of things that he did and the kind of life he lived.