All the different styles I've played have really helped me as a guitarist and helped me develop my own way of playing.

I'll hear something in my head, then eventually play it. But it's a subconscious thing. Most of the time I really don't know what I'm playing.

My first joint I smoked onstage in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I smoked my first joint live.

When I'm with Purple, I'm totally with Purple; when I'm doing my thing, I'm totally doing my own thing.

I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

I can't do anything but play guitar.

You're in direct contact with the music by having the strings under your fingers. It's not mechanical like a piano.

If you're not having fun it's not worth doing.

I came in with a completely new perspective. I would write songs and they would pick tunes they felt were in the Purple vein.

I don't like English bands. They're too structured.

When you come from the Midwest, you have a more open mind than if you come from the West Coast or the East Coast.

In business, sir, one has no friends, only correspondents.

Fear of failure prevents you from realising your dreams of success.

I really don't feel good about leaving my house anymore. I don't feel really good about being anywhere in New York City alone anymore.

I used to think there was a scientific way to do things. Like a proper way to answer a question or that kind of stuff. It's like, there's not! There's not a method, there's not a science to it.

I figure I basically am a ghost. I think we all are.

When I do get free time, I spend a lot of it at home with my family and my close friends and I think that's what keeps me happy, healthy, grounded, and totally in check.

Early on I saw the repression and idolatry of Stalinism, and when it cracked, I was open to religion again.

No matter how far apart we are, we are all under and looking at the same sky.

There is no free market in oil.

I have always hated that damn James Bond. I'd like to kill him.