Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.

First person narrative is a very effective tool but you have to know as a writer how to make it work.

People don't realize you're blowing over changes, time changes, harmony, different keys. I mark a point in my solo where it's got to peak at point D I go to A, B, C D then I'm home.

If you have the material it will form itself as a kind of connective tissue.

Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.

When you're interviewing someone, even your mother - you have to sort of deal with you have to get some objective space from yourself and the person but you also have to find what's the best way to get the information from that person.

As a journalist, the details always tell the story.

A band is not a democracy: It's show business.

A daily dose of Nietzsche goes a long way.

A lot of people are not interested in stories in which they don't see themselves.

A typewriter forces you to keep going, to march forward.

All of us want to be Superman when we grow up, fighting for truth and justice. That's part of what drives me as a writer.

Anyone can write your own life story.

As a writer, you have to be near people and hear stuff. I'm a hamburger and cheese kind of fellow; I'm not Henry David Thoreau.

As far as making a living, if plumbing earned more, I'd probably do it. At least you can leave the job at home once the tools are put away. A writer works in his mind 24/7.

Atticus Finch is, you know, he was just his whole - the business of his modesty and his ability to see tomorrow and to try to buttress his knowledge of what was coming for his kids was something that I'll never - as a father I'm not able to do.

Be a member of the human race. Love somebody. Change the world.

Be kind to the living.

Being a best-selling author doesn't make you a millionaire. It's not like Stephen King.

Don't get me started on Americans and war. One of the things I learnt over in Italy is how they mythologised the war so that it's all good old gung-ho guys from Omaha and ignored everyone else's role.

Essentially, I'm a storyteller, and I make my living by telling stories, be they music or nonfiction or fiction.

Every time I see something about the Wild West, I'm reminded that our version of history may not be what really happened.

Everybody knew James Brown. Every musician dreamed of being in his band.

Fiction makes your dreams come true, and, as a writer, fiction allows you to delve into the area of miracles.

Historians will tell you that they deal with fact and empirical evidence. But that doesn't really help me understand a person.

Historical novels are hard to do for the general public for commercial writers like myself.

I can't be a creative person if I'm a celebrity.

I cannot recall any moment of clarity about becoming a writer. I always liked to read. That's what did it.

I don't come from Lake Wobegon, and that world is not mine. It's not that funny to me. It's funny to other people, and I'm not judging it, but the world that I come from is not considered funny by other people as well. There's so much pain in it.

I don't do any art to please any people.

I don't like a bunch of writers sitting around, puffing smoke, they like this book, he wrote this - tell me a dirty joke, you know. It's just not my style, I've never been that kind of person.

I don't like living around too many fancy-pantsy folks. That ain't my thing. I'm not into phony people.

I don't live for my work. My life is my life. That's more important, and I think that helps my work.

I don't want to read a book that's depressing.

I go through periods listening to specific types of music. Because I'm a musician, listening to music is... it's a bit like work for me. A little bit.

I grew up in a house with a lot of kids, brothers and sisters. So I don't mind a lot of talking, yelling, playing. I can tune most of that out.

I hate to sound blase about it, but literary status is not important to me. Being happy is important to me.

I have cousins in North Carolina who talk in that old Southern style of 'yakking,' if you will. All the black men in my life when I was a boy talked that way, and I love that kind of talk.

I just don't see the point in sitting around hollering the blues over things you have no control over. It's all in God's hands.

I just love music, and I love what music does for people.

I like stories where normal people are in abnormal situations, and that's what appeals to me about history.

I love the language of, you know, the old black country man with a blues guitar and... boots and the quick banter.

I put headlights in Ford vans. I still drive a Ford.

I read more history books than anything else.

I split my time between a small town in New Jersey and New York City.

I thank God I was a reporter before I became a writer.

I think heroes who are not flawed are not believable.

I think only now am I at the age where I've forgiven the past enough to say, 'You know what? Slavery was there. Let's talk about it in ways that will help us face tomorrow.

I type most of my books for the first chapter or two - I use a manual typewriter for the first 50 pages or so - and then I move to the computer. It helps me keep the work lean so I don't end up spending 10 pages describing a leaf.