Finding clothes in the South was impossible.

Nashville's like any other hometown - after a while, it's stifling.

I think a lot of men are afraid of pretty things, and I'm not, I like pretty songs.

As a southern man, there's two things I'm definitely not scared of: bow ties and white pants.

My parents split up when I was about 2. I realize more and more how much I'm like my father. My gentleness comes from my mother.

I didn't do anything differently than what my father was doing. It's a really hard family to rebel in. I could have become an accountant. Or I could have become a Republican.

All my records have been written to be records, rather than writing a group of songs and seeing if they fit together.

I didn't get into music to become a blues musician, or a country musician. I'm a singer-songwrit er. In my book that means I get to do whatever I want.

I've never been good at rock'n'roll songs, anyway; either I'm blessed or I'm cursed, but whatever I write comes out sounding old.

I heard Nirvana, and discovered that songs could be like poetry, but a little bit more refined: you didn't have to have 20 verses to get your point across.

I always watched movies and rooted for the bad guys, you know? I've always been that kind of guy. I still hold some respect for criminals that are good at their jobs.

How....will I ever truly depict you?You’re perfect, my writing isn’t.

Pride could be painful sometimes. And right now, hers was suffocating

Beauty is the oracle that speaks to us all.

I made my fortune by being able to spot a certain kind of man.

Being sorry is the highest act of selfishness, seeing value only after discarding it.

Also, I am very religious. It gave me peace of mind all my career.

There are Eastern religions that deny the reality of pain and suffering. They just try to wipe it away by saying it's all an illusion.

I'm amazed at how Muslims keep their humanity after reading the Koran.

The saint and poet seek privacy to ends the most public and universal: and it is the secret of culture, to interest the man more in his public, than in his private quality.

It's taken me a long time to learn to accept the risks and just be willing to try it over and over again.