My whole career from the early 70s on has been mind-blowing. I didn't imagine in my life that I would ever be considered a guitar player first of all because I started off as a singer.

I have been doing music all my life so everyday when I get up I expect music will be part of it.

The melody is the most important thing that must stay in the minds of the people who listen to you. No matter how many notes you play, you can't let them forget what the song is.

As my career has progressed, I've had the pleasure of playing with the baddest jazz cats on the planet. But that doesn't change my desire to entertain folks. That's really who I am.

I spent a lot of time teaching myself theory and harmony so I could be free to express myself on the instrument.

Never give up on a good thing, never give up, never give up!

The greatest teacher is just going out and playing.

Love songs are one of the great essences of life, the only thing thats lasting.

The less one remembers about the day before, the more the new day will be unfettered by triviality.

The greatest guitar player in the world today for me is Paco de Lucia, who is actually Spanish.

Lenny Breau dazzled me with his extraordinary guitar playing... I wish the world had the opportunity to experience his artistry.

When I discovered music — when I discovered the craft of shaping a song — my being fell into place.

I grew up working at a record store and listening to vinyl. Even if it's side A and B, there's always this continuity that really turned me on about music.

Patience s bitter, but it's fruit is sweet.

I'm not like a high intellectual. That's the thing.

For a Catholic kid in parochial school, the only way to survive the beatings - by classmates, not the nuns - was to be the funny guy.

And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.

if you listen long enough - or is it deep enough? - the silence of a lover can speak plainer than any words! Only you must know how to listen. Pain must have taught you how.

When I was a young man, I was a baritone, very far from possessing the whole range of the tenor then.

If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still

We must remember how to honor and respect life with each breath, step, word, and thought. What you bless blesses you in return. This is the power of reciprocity.