After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

Young kids are doing the same thing I did, but they're doing it differently. They don't do brain surgery the way they used to do it either.

I knew a lot of chords, but they weren't the chords that came with the melody that came with the idea I had for the song. Melodies are simple things. If you see a train wreck, there's a melody. If you see a little daisy blowing in the breeze, there's a melody.

When you retire, it's a place in life, a part of the journey. You just don't quit work; you develop an attitude where you can do what you please

After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

Sinclair Lewis was asked one time to give a talk to class of students about writing. When he got there he asked the class, Do you people want to be writers?and they all said yes. Then Lewis said, Why the hell aren't you at home writing?

I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.