I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could.

It's hard to find a way forward. When you're 18 it happens in huge chunks every day, but after 20 years, growth is much more costly.

Time will take your money, but money won't buy time.

I believe 100 percent in the power and importance of music.

I don't take compliments very easily. I think most musicians suffer from low self-esteem to some extent.

That's the motivation of an artist - to seek attention of some kind.

You have to choose whether to love yourself or not.

I was in chemical jail.

Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have made a lot of difference to my audience that I'm as bald as a billiard ball!

Americans work a long away ahead of themselves because of the size of the place. To make any impact at all you have to promote yourself with live performances ages before a release.

I can take criticisms but not compliments.

Certain things in life are more important than the usual crap that everyone strives for.

Being on a boat that's moving through the water, it's so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what's important and what's not.

When I cleaned up some 17 odd years ago, I felt terrible for about six months. The only thing that gave me any real relief was strenuous physical activity.

Once you get that two-way energy thing going, everyone benefits hugely.

Knowing when to quit is probably a very important thing, but I just am not ready.

I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.

If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed, I agree with you.

I don't think anyone really says anything new.

Music is like a huge release of tension.

I think that we're all totally isolated beings and always will be.

It is a process of discovery. It's being quiet enough and undisturbed enough for a period of time so that the songs can begin to sort of peek out, and you begin to have emotional experiences in a musical way.

There'll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time, unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.

If you're an addict, it controls your life and your life becomes uncontrollable. It's boring and painful, filling your system with something that makes you stare at your shoes for six hours.

If I were to try to identify a turning point I'd say that was it - getting clean.

I don't read music. I don't write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself.

I don't know much about God. But if everything does originate with God, then certainly songs do as well.

People should watch out for three things: avoid a major addiction, don't get so deeply into debt that it controls your life, and don't start a family before you're ready to settle down.

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.

Somehow it helps just to take something that's internal and externalize it, to see it in front of you.

I think people are isolated because of the nature of human consciousness, and they like it when they feel the connection between themselves and someone else.

I am myself for a living. I don't animate a character.

We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow.

I'm very unstable; there's no stability in a musician's life at all. You live on a bus or on the road hand to mouth and you don't know where your money's coming from.

If you feel like singing along, don't.

I was a functional addict.

It is the most delightful thing that ever happens to me, when I hear something coming out of my guitar and out of my mouth that wasn't there before.

If the gig's going really well, I'm incredibly happy on stage and really feel good about my life and things.

Sobering up was responsible for breaking up my marriage. That's what it couldn't stand.

It's probably foolish to expect relationships to go on forever and to say that because something only lasts 10 years, it's a failure.

I started being a songwriter pretending I could do it, and it turned out I could.

A concert is always like a feast day to me.

Bruce Springsteen's a rock star. Elton John is a rock star. I'm a folk musician. Honestly, I think that's true.

I collect hats. That's what you do when you're bald.

I don't get into heavy political numbers because I don't find them lyrical.

I don't play the kind of music that works in a football stadium.

I don't reinvent myself in any major way. It seems to be a slow evolution. I go back and visit certain themes that I feel strongly about and resonate with me emotionally.

I enjoy selling my music. I don't enjoy selling myself.

I find it a lot healthier for me to be someplace where I can go outside in my bare feet.