The stupidest thing that a writer can do is write a memoir I think, unless it's right before you die -- maybe.

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

America's criminal justice system isn't known for rehabilitation. I'm not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

I don't believe that songwriting has to be profound, but I truly believe that it's a crime for you to go outta your way for it not to be.

I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre.

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.

Every day on Earth is another chance to get it right.

I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

Age is neither a limit nor an exception to realize your true potential or the way you want to live your life

My activism does not need proof to be real. It exists in the work of my bones against weight in the morning.

...if good is defined as something else, it is then impossible either to prove that any other definition is wrong or even to deny such definition.

Love is an eternal shining star.

To now is to love, to see is a joy, but to lose is hurtful.

You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.

How can my old photographs fail to create in me a feeling of emptiness and sorrow? They make me acutely aware that this second deprivation will be final this time.

One more stage, one more limo, one more run for your life.

History is an alternating series of frying pans and fires.

You gotta judge a man by his principles.