I told somebody in Europe I was 43. I never tell my true age. It's ridiculous that people ask. The press doesn't deserve anything but lies.

The first time I met Patti Smith was in a laundromat. We knew some of the same people, including Richard Hell.

I just don't like people coming up to me and saying something. It immediately makes you become insincere. There is no way you can react to it sincerely.

When I think of 'influence', I think of 'influenza', like somebody's picked up a germ.

The song Venus de Milo, the whole subject of it is Love is a drug.

I never liked mellow sounding guitar.

You can't get so interested in just making sounds. The point of it all is some kind of expression.

Practice? I never practice. I just write songs and take solos.

I like thinking of myself as invisible. I find it a very advantageous way to live.

Everybody's out trying to be commercial. I'm not trying to be anything, really.

When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone.

Write what you know, and what do you know better than your own secrets?

but laugh, laugh, laugh, because if you ever stop laughing, it might just tear you apart

We knew that we wanted to play heavy music but I hadn't gotten into melody and things like that.

We're not the States of America; we're the United States of America. If states don't get what they need, we're not going to have a successful plan, period.

Religion must be a punishment, because nobody gets religion who does not have a bad conscience.

In Buddhism we don't really believe in sin and salvation as Westerners would define them. We believe in the limitless possibilities of the present and of future moments.

In this case, the government will essentially be run by the people who are running it now. The top level [Barack] Obama appointees will leave by inauguration day.

Maybe I'm damned if I do, but with every other beat I got left in my heart, you know I'd rather be damned with you.

You feel better in the short run when you have a tub of ice cream, but in the long run, you don't.

I do think there is a value in the services of judges for long periods of time.