I had a guitar sitting around, and it just happened to have four strings on it, and I would sit around watching TV and playing it. I ended up writing bunches of songs around four strings.

It's hard to go out in front of people with an acoustic guitar and improvise for 30 or 40 minutes, but I had a compulsion to do it. I just had to in a way that I can't really explain.

I definitely have a different perspective on music in general. But once I actually have a guitar in my hands, I think I disappear into the same black hole that I was disappearing into when I was 15.

I was working at eBay, so I would just troll the vintage categories, find old amps and what have you. I was buying a fair amount of stuff and playing with it and then selling it back.

I don't think I had a specific moment when I thought, "I'm not going to play music anymore." I just played less and got involved in other things.

With Fred McDowell, I just love the way he articulates the notes. I'm hardly unique in that, but there's just something about that that I love.

I did pull out my old Telecaster, and have been thinking I'd like to play that loud with a drummer. But I haven't actually done that yet.

The nice thing about solo is I don't have to coordinate with anyone else's schedule, since it's hard for me just to have a free 15 minutes here and there.

I had opportunities to play with other people and give my self some sort of security, but for some reason I wanted to play solo and just put it out there.

A horn has that voice quality, and an electric guitar can emulate that. But playing an acoustic, the notes don't sustain like that.

I believe that if you can't agree with how they think, then it's better to learn from their difference.

In WASP families, if you don't get along with someone, you have as little to do with them as possible. In Jewish families, you move next door, to make them as miserable as possible.

Words. Ever since chisel was taken to slate, it has been accepted that words can and do change the world.

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.

Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.

One of my correspondents has me convinced that the human race would be saved if the world became one huge nudist colony. I keep thinking how much harder it would be to carry concealed weapons.

Often, the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have.

Our home joys are the most delightful earth affords, and the joy of parents in their children is the most holy joy of humanity.

I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.

As long as people overlook matters, then inferiors can, without any fear, lead an easy and peaceful life.