Sorrow and solitude, these are the precious things/ And the only words that are worth remembering.

Aloneness is a state of being, whereas loneliness is a state of feeling. It's like the difference between being broke and being poor.

There are only two kinds of songs; there's the blues, and there's zip-a-dee-doo-dah.

I don't think you can ever do your best. Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best.

I've met Bob Dylan's bodyguards, and if Steve Earle thinks he can stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table, he's sadly mistaken.

I'd like to write some songs that are so good that nobody understands them. Not even myself.

What I do is between me and the Lord, to examine and possibly alter the state of grace in which I live, and thereby the state of grace of anybody who listens.

I don't know why I write really depressing songs. I'm a kind of melancholy guy, I suppose. But I figure I'm about normal.

Human's can't live in the present as animals do; they just live in the present. But human's are always thinking about the future or the past.

Im the mold that grunge was grown in.

There's only two kinds of music: the blues and zippety doo-dah.

When you find love, you take it. You grab it with both hands and you do everything in your power not to let it go. You can’t just walk away from it and expect it to linger until you’re ready for it.

It’s easy enough to get along with a loved and loving child—at least till you try to get him to do something.

I'm in the studio for hours in that tiny little box, and really, the performing part is what I'm most excited about.

I love creating individual short stories within chapters, but I want to get better at building consistent narratives from start to finish.

Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny.

Before you can make good music, you just have to shut up. Then the music can say what it has to say.

The art of war is like the art of the courtesan; indeed they might be called sisters, since both are slaves of desperation.

I hope people will think very carefully about the future.

People like myself say, 'Fix the problem. Put him in the general [prison] population. The moral prisoners will deal with him in a way we don't have the nerve to do.'

I suppose I could've done a job. I haven't been doing any work. I'm not really used to doing quick jobs and then stopping, but I'm sure it would be possible.