There's a freedom you begin to feel the closer you get to Austin, Texas.

When I'm driving the highway by myself is when I write best.

A frozen river is not a dry one, it's just a still river on the surface but is still moving, and so am my winter writing.

Where I grew up, Bob Wills and his western swing was very popular. And western swing is not that far from jazz and blues.

When I was growing up, Nashville was the place to go if you had songs to sell and thought you had talent and wanted to tour and be on Grand Ole Opry [radio show]. It was the big deal back in those days to play the Grand Ole Opry. And you could travel around the world saying, "Hi, I'm Willie from the Grand Ole Opry".

There is only one map to the journey of life and it lives within your heart

We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.