I was born or raised in the church, so I guess the first songs I would have played would have been church songs.

I was kind of pathetic. That's what got me playing out in the street. I ran out of money and needed more gin for the night.

I don't care too much for thinking about the past. The truth is just another story. You can remember it any way you want; it's never gonna be the same twice.

I've been playing one way or another since I was about three years old. I don't remember not knowing how to play any instruments.

I don't think music is an art any more than cooking food is an art.

Some guy is good at putting these verses together, and some guy is good at singing them. That's just the way it is.

I'm just a guy that sings songs because that's what he likes to do, I guess.

I wouldn't consider myself a songwriter at all. Maybe I piece together a certain little thing here and there, but songwriters are people who do this with sheet music.

I don't associate much with anybody. I'm not big on all the teachings and groups and being a part of something, I guess.

I just started playing music on the street and walking around with a fiddle, and I think that's kind of when I started being serious - or as serious as it's going to get.

I didn't have any intention of playing music for a living or anything like that. I was just not doing well in my head or whatever you call it and drinking too much.

Don't reject a shoe because you can't run in it. It's OK not to run.

One thing that's great about firefighters: If they don't have the equipment they desperately need, they don't have the help, they don't care. They'll do it on their own.

Metallic trees. That's new. If you see any steel dryads, be sure to tell me so I can run away screaming.

Listen to people. Listen to yourself at the end of the day, but listen to people a lot.

Cautious, like crossing a river in the winter.

I thought being on stage was an amazing feeling, but there is nothing that can top watching my wife bring our son into this world.

The pull between sound and syntax creates a kind of musical tension in the language that interests me.

You know what you like, you know what you want. So all you have to do is find something work related to that stuff

Education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life.

Kill one, terrify a thousand.