James McMurtry is a true Americana poet - actually he is a poet regardless of genre

Multimedia scares me off.

Interviews are usually a follow-up, like a press junket or a publicity junket, or something like that, and I’m not doing any of that right now. I don’t have any axes to grind.

You don't have to fight against being placed in a box any more than the number two has to fight against being the number three. I mean, two is not going to be the number three, ever.

As an artist, you don't think about the parabola or the arc you're describing or where you're going to ultimately end up, you're just kind of crawling around, seeing what's out there.

I just finished a novel, and I'm back kind of noodling on the screenplays. Screenplays are tough. I am making music, I'm just not sure what kind of music it is or where it's going.

It's important to be precise about words, because of the thought value of them-they frame and shape so much of the way we understand things.

There are more honest people and more good people than there are thieves and bad people. It's just always been that way.

I'm not performing now. What I do now is listen to music all day long. Listening is very nourishing to me. I might go back to perform, I might make another record. I've got a record half finished.

Behind every dark cloud there's usually rain

You have to have access to ideas. The Internet is facilitating that access to ideas. In 25 years, the way that data's going to flow back and forth, we don't quite understand yet.

When we get hung up on the non-essentials, the essentials have no opportunity to make a significant appearance.

Be yourself, because an original is better than a copy.

As much as we thirst for approval we dread condemnation.

It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den.

A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.

I think in show business, it's really kind of easy to perpetuate that feeling of, like, Oh, I don't measure up. Or always having to prove yourself.

Unattractive people are more obsessed with looks.

Taking away from someone else will never make you any better.

To be paid, to be employed to be an enthusiast and be excited about existence is fantastic.

I like having deadlines... a film release date or a concert premiere date. It channels one's energy into doing often remarkable work that oceans of extra time would probably not improve upon.