I don't think I have any right to say I belong to that [Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan tradition]. I think that's something that eventually maybe you get inducted into. I'm just experimenting.

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.

Know it from root to fruit

Writers aren't exactly people.... They're a whole bunch of people trying to be one person.

Heaven has no taste.""Now-""And not one single sushi restaurant."A look of pain crossed the angel's suddenly very serious face.

Practically every guy is the perfect guy the first night, so why ever bother with a second?

How many wives have been forced by the death of well-intentioned but too protective husbands to face reality late in life, bewildered and frightened because they were strangers to it!

I'm not much of a storyteller with words!

The Negro was invented in America.

There was a beautiful time in the beginning when I just did it and didn't analyze the consequences, but I think that time ends in everyone's work.

Writers, like elephants, have long, vicious memories. There are things I wish I could forget.

Take care how you place your moccasins upon the Earth, step with care, for the faces of the future generations are looking up from the Earth waiting their turn for life.