I naturally wanted to be saved, so when I came home I told my mom I wanted to be confirmed. That's the way I related to it, being raised an Episcopalian. I went to Dallas and got confirmed.

Risk is what separates the artist from the artisan.

I don't hear any of the popular stuff unless it's good 'cause I pay no attention to popular culture, at all.

If Picasso walked into Disney looking for a job, they would throw him out on the street. Couldn't draw good enough.

Everything around a writer, or musician in the record business, probably everything in all the United States or in all of western civilization, is about competition.

Listen, the story of the United States is this: One kid, without anything, walks out of his house, down the road, with nothing but a guitar and conquers the world. And we've done that again, and again, and again – Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Rogers, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters.

I don't want to make music for people who don't care about music.