I hate to see the evening sun go down.

With a guitar I would be able to express the things I felt in sounds.

Setting my mind on a musical instrument was like falling in love. All the world seemed bright and changed.

Life is like a trumpet - if you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out of it.

Whenever I heard the song of a bird and the answering call of its mate, I could visualize the notes in scale, all built up within my consciousness as a natural symphony.

My big ears indicated a talent for music. This thrilled me.

If my serenade of song and story should serve as a pillow for some composer's head, as yet perhaps unborn, to dream and build on our fond melodies in his tomorrow, I have not labored in vain.

I knew the whistle of each of the river boats on the Tennessee.

You can never tell what's in a woman's mind, And if she's from Harlem, there's no use o' tryin

Saving was slow and painful.

Nature was my kindergarten.

If I could touch anything in the world right now, it would be your heart. I want to take that piece of you and keep it with me.

Reading is fuel for the brain. Writing is fuel for the spirit...

Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source.

Wherever it pleases God to put man in this world, the Christian must be ready for martyrdom and death. It is only in this way that man learns faith.

I've never pumped myself up or made myself angry as some sportsmen do. I think that one should treat his opponent with great respect.

You might be a redneck if you use a radiator hose to fix your kitchen sink.

Many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview.

I don't mind aging. I mean, my whole thing is, it's just a privilege to age.

That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments...

Writing a poem is a lesson in the truest empathy. And to truly have empathy is to truly know power, or at least the only kind of power I’m interested in.