So I learnt a few country western songs, I bought a chord book, and right away I started writing my own stuff, which nobody else did that, I don't know why.

There is something about guitars—maybe something magical—when played right, which evokes past, mysterious, barely-conscious sentiments, both individual and universal.

I had a big background in listening to classical music and I started trying to compose, like I was playing the guitar but I heard an orchestra in my head.

When I play, I very quickly put myself into a light hypnotic trance and compose while playing, drawing directly from the emotions.

But I say these things in an objective dispassionate manner because, you know, and I can't explain why, but being one of the greatest guitarists in the world simply is not very important to me.

Early Bluegrass is my favorite kind of music, not to many people know that.

How can I be a folk? I'm from the suburbs you know.

The other thing in composition is opening up the unconscious.

I just want to be treated like an average guy.

From a social perspective, I am looking for friends, not acolytes.

I was using them as teachers for technique but I was never trying to be a folk.

The historic beauty of BJJ rests not with its ability to allow a smaller man to maim a larger man, but with its ability to allow any man of any size to survive.

COMMENDATION n. The tribute that we pay to achievements that resembles but do not equal our own.

God wants to wipe away your past and lift your burdens. Do you let Him?

But only those who have aims and ambitions for the benefit, not of the individual, but of humankind as a whole can persevere to the end.

The only new technology that interests me is when it sort of throws me back soundwise. And I can think, "Wow, that means I can go onstage and sound like Scotty Moore now and again!"

When we let go of all our notions about things, everything becomes really true.

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed.

I think I came along at an opportune time. I don't know if that would happen anymore, because the whole way of doing business in Hollywood has changed.

I obtained a job at the Library of Congress. I loved books, so I felt at home. I was going to end up, I thought, majoring in English and teach at the college level.

Boredom, after all, is a form of criticism.