I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

America's criminal justice system isn't known for rehabilitation. I'm not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

I don't believe that songwriting has to be profound, but I truly believe that it's a crime for you to go outta your way for it not to be.

I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre.

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.

Every day on Earth is another chance to get it right.

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

What's important is you wake up in the morning and something doesn't exist, and when you finish you day's work something is in the world that wasn't there before.

Babe Ruth was the home-run king of his time, but also the strikeout king.

I have a certain pool of subject matter that I like to write about, things that interest me: politics, religion, ecology, and relationships between men and women. And that's usually what I focus on.

There are two types of genius; one which above all begets and wants to beget, and another which prefers being fertilized and giving birth.

If sentiment doesn't ultimately make fibbers of some people, their natural abominable memories almost certainly will.

What was it about high school that made people think with their insecurities instead of their brains?

What is the use of assuring Fundamentalists that science is compatible with religion. They retort at once, Certainly not with our religion.

As far as the style, I can't say there is one definite style. I probably feel most comfortable writing in a tonal idiom, with considerable, if not extreme chromaticism.

It is the tragedy of other people that they are to us merely showcases for the very perishable collections of our own mind.

Talking high philosophy often confuses people, but a look from an egoless person can lift the clouds of pain and despair.

When I was 17, I was so shy I could barely speak or introduce myself to anyone.