The minute you make a record because you think somebody's going to play it on the radio is the minute you ought to quit.

I say if you're not obsessing about something, you might not be into it quite enough.

Kill your television. Throw it out the darn window. Watch PBS in a bar.

If you want to be happy, you listen to the music; if you want to be sad, you listen to the words.

If I was any happier, you'd think I was on crack.

I was trained completely by ear. And it was actually diving into the Bach that led me to get - there was like a Mel Bay "Teach Yourself How To Sight Read..."

I celebrate three holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Telluride.

My thesis statement would be—Bach didn't write Baroque music. He wrote great music.

It was kind of sort of the heavens opened up and I realized that Bach, at least, you know - out of all the classical music - needs to be a big part of my life.

I think people react so strongly to hearing the human voice, you can't give them too much of it or else they want it all the time.

The real question is, do you root for the fox in that song? Or are you horrified that the goose and the duck are being dragged off to their death, which is described in detail?

Don't nourish your fears more than you nourish your hopes.

No matter how we choose to live, we both die at the end.

People with weaknesses get killed by the people who lack them. Notice I'm not dead.

In the beginning [Hitler] was genial and pleasant. He would have extraordinary willpower and unheard-of influence on people.

It's give-and-take and back-and-forth, that constantly allows you to grow as an artist and as a human being.

If we can't come together, and have conversations and understand our biases and understand that hate, none of us are really the good guys here.

But when you dwell in a house you mislike, you will look out of a window a deal more than those that are content with their dwelling.

Once I retire and slow down, I don't want to be in New York. I want to be somewhere near a lake or a pond, so that on my days when I have nothing to do, I can go fishing.

One day there were two out in the ninth, and I hit a pop fly so high that the fans got tired of waiting for it to come down. So they all went home and listened to it drop by turning on the radio.

Being ruled by a depraved poet-king who is sacrified each spring is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.