People hate good books to be over. I wish I could write a 700-page book.

I don't separate writing songs from poetry and short fiction. In the area where I work in my house, there's a word processor and a guitar.

Back then, the business depended on bohemians. ... They needed Kristofferson and Roger Miller ..It was the tail end of something...the last Tin Pan Alley. ...and we were the night shift! They gave us keys, because they knew the best songs weren't written in daylight.... We got our keys taken away several times...me and Guy Clark.

My audience doesn't agree with me on everything, but I love my audience, because they're totally okay with us having a dialogue.

I was comparatively late in understanding Bob Dylan's overwhelming importance as a songwriter. Everybody who does my job exists in the shadow of Bob Dylan. There are two categories: Dylan and everybody else. It's as simple as that. And it's going to be that way until he dies.

My therapist says that I choose women that I couldn't possibly succeed in a relationship with because I really want to be alone. Which sounds complicated and convoluted to me, but I don't know. Maybe she's right. There's a part of me that wants that.

I'm not a racist, but I do have to work at not being a racist, because of where I grew up.