using parking meters as walking sticks.

Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.

I used to imagine that making it in music - really making it in music - is if you're an old man going by a schoolyard and you hear children singing your songs, playing jump-rope, or on the swings. That's the ultimate. You're in the culture.

Most people don't care if you're telling them the truth or if you're telling them a lie, as long as they're entertained by it.

I dunno when I started writing really. I was, like, filling out applications and stuff real early. Last name first, first name last, sex. 'occasionally' , stuff like that. Then I was writing letters, filling out forms, writing on bathroom walls.

I've seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train.

You can learn a lot about a woman by getting smashed with her.