I don't know why I write really depressing songs. I'm a kind of melancholy guy, I suppose. But I figure I'm about normal.

Aloneness is a state of being, whereas loneliness is a state of feeling. It's like the difference between being broke and being poor.

There are only two kinds of songs; there's the blues, and there's zip-a-dee-doo-dah.

I don't think you can ever do your best. Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best.

I've met Bob Dylan's bodyguards, and if Steve Earle thinks he can stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table, he's sadly mistaken.

I'd like to write some songs that are so good that nobody understands them. Not even myself.

What I do is between me and the Lord, to examine and possibly alter the state of grace in which I live, and thereby the state of grace of anybody who listens.

Sorrow and solitude, these are the precious things/ And the only words that are worth remembering.

Human's can't live in the present as animals do; they just live in the present. But human's are always thinking about the future or the past.

Im the mold that grunge was grown in.

There's only two kinds of music: the blues and zippety doo-dah.

Light does not have to beg darkness to shine.

You become a master in what you repeatedly do in consistency. Mastery is not born

When you know every well what to do and how to do it, your attitude determines how well you will have it done!

You know Nana, I searched and searched, but could never find the key that unlocked the way. And now that I've stopped looking, I've finally found it. Maybe the door will open for me.

Come with uncle and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones...you are invited!

If you want to grow, you must learn to let go.

I’ve learned to live with rage. In some ways, it’s my rage that keeps me going. Without it, I would have been whipped long ago. With it, I got a lot more songs to sing.

A word of kindness is seldom spoken in vain, while witty saying are as easily lost as the pearls slipping from a broken string.

It is somehow reassuring to discover that the word travel is derived from travail, denoting the pains of childbirth.

I took an acting class for 10 seconds before I played a lead in a student movie. I showed the film to an agent who said he would send me on interviews but wouldn't sign me.