I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people.

You can't eat fish. It's 6,000 parts DDT per million all over the world, not counting radiation.

I grew a love for helpless, defenseless things. People would give me lions and jaguars. I had cheetahs, monkeys.

I always wanted a guitar. I always wanted to be a cowboy singer because I also listened to Hank Williams, and he would always sing these neat romantic songs.

Buddy Rich was one of the most incredible technicians in the world, on this planet, but the only people he could really impress, who knew what he was doing was another musician or another drummer.

There's a saying. If you want someone to love you forever, buy a dog, feed it and keep it around.

I used to be a mean maniac. Someone once threw a firecracker at a show and I jumped off the side of the stage and whacked 'em on the side of the head.

The kids called me King of the Surf Guitar. I surfed sunup to sundown.

My uncle gave me a trumpet, but I loved the Louis Armstrong sound and the Harry James sound and I played by ear and I played always soulful or very direct from the gut.

My philosophy is the thicker the wood the thicker the sound, the bigger the string the bigger the sound. My smallest string is a 14 gauge.

I don't play pyrotechnic scales. I play about frustration, patience, anger. Music is an extension of my soul.

Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.

These sciences are camel stallions — use books to line them up these couplets are runaways — use books for them as halters.

To realize your dreams, you must first take action towards those dreams.

I told you there was no such thing as immortality, not even for dragons.

For me there is a poesis, a poetics, around the trope of the road that is embedded within many life experiences of the people I've been close to.

Sweet is the smile of home; the mutual look when hearts are of each other sure.

Hard. Fast. Deep. When I'm done you'll know you're mine.

Nature, philosophy and social issues are the three things that always occupy my mind. You do not have any power over others but can only change yourself.

I think it's important for people to know that bad things do happen to good people and that life can throw a serious curveball at even the most cautious and "prepared" people out there.

We accomplish all that we do through delegation - either to time or to other people.