I don't feel like I'm on a mission. I'm trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to.

I enjoyed hearing people do their own songs. I became attracted to singer-songwriters. I became interested in them as people; was curious about what they wanted to say.

I've been lucky to be able to make the records I've wanted to make. The record company has never pressured me to cut certain songs.

I am limited by what I can think of to do-my choices are not so great.

It's really a lot easier to write about things that are problematic. Who wants to hear how happy you are?

It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost.

I don't feel like I'm on a mission. I'm trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to.

Fortunately, I've never had a job.

Singing your own songs is all about individual expression.

You can't second-guess your audience. You can only do what you think is right. If you do that, your audience will appreciate you.

I'm really in no danger of being perceived as a famous movie actor!

Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.

I played guitar when I was young and never really considered it as a way to make a living.

Both my parents worked, so I was home alone a lot, and I would listen to their records. They belonged to the Columbia House record club, so they had records!

It's important to be successful enough to be able to keep doing what you love.

As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm.

Dad often told me, 'My job is to help my boss do his job and make him look good.' That was my dad's objective. Everything about the way he conducted himself was to communicate support for his superiors and respect for his coworkers. The way he dressed was his starting point in that communication.

Horses teach you patience and how to do things the right way so you can get the right result.

I've always thought that writing isn't really that hard. It's having a good idea that's hard.

I've gotten to work with some wonderful directors and people who have been great teachers to me.

If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem, and you're screwed.

In school, I didn't speak up often in class. I was never the person to yell out an answer. If I knew it, I might whisper it to my buddy and let him answer. I kept quiet.

Never guess a woman's age. Never guess a woman's weight. Never even talk about weight in front of a woman. And never, ever ask a woman when she's due.

One of my favorite things is when people will ask for a song that I hadn't planned to play. It is really fun to see if you can remember something, and you don't always. I mean, sometimes it's just crash and burn.

The idea that we humans are good-natured, politically correct, nonjudgmental beings is pure fantasy. We are, at the very least, judgmental.

The most important thing you can do as a performer is to be yourself, or be an onstage version of yourself. If you're not being true to yourself, and somebody likes that other version of you, you're kind of stuck.

Tipping your hat to a lady is good form. If you're at a dinner table, you'd most certainly take your hat off - cowboy hat, baseball hat, or otherwise.

Wear what you want to wear. Do what you want to do. Be who you are. Pick out your own clothes. Be a man. And if that's too much to ask, as it almost always is for me, think of someone you consider to be a man and pretend to be like him. I pretend to be like my dad.

When I first was trying to play the clubs around Houston to start playing my own songs, songwriters like Eric Taylor and Vince Bell and Townes Van Zandt and Don Sanders were just really encouraging to me and would let me sit in with them during their sets and introduce me to the person that owned and booked the club.

You don't have to have anything in common with people you've known since you were five. With old friends, you've got your whole life in common.

You're saying something with your appearance whether you mean to or not, so you may as well mean to.

I dont know what it is about the shower that generates creative thoughts. Maybe its the hot water. Maybe its being unencumbered even by the restriction of clothing.

Its important to be successful enough to be able to keep doing what you love.

When you have a solid upbringing and a strong sense of place, that sustains you. My sense of home never leaves me.

The successful establishment of a buffer zone around Fort Carson will provide an example for other bases around the country as we seek to protect the training mission of the U.S. military while preserving critical habitats on our ranges.

The dedication of the United States Air Force, Special Forces, and others involved in the mission to tracking down terrorists can not be matched. We express our gratitude to these men and women who defend the freedom America represents.

The decision to go to war is the most important decision that I can make as a representative in Congress. As a veteran, I see any potential military action first through the eyes of the young men and women who volunteered to wear the uniform and would carry out such a mission.

I think a benefit is that we try to put it up in a short time. From the decision to do this mission until we fly, it's six months and one week or so, so it's a very short time.

A very considerable body of the German people live in America and propose to fight that Government. Bourke in his great speech last week welcoming the Belgian mission to Boston worked out the President's meaning with care.

If you ask me to summarise our mission, I would put it this way: We were a military regime that sought to lay the foundations for freedom and liberty in a complex society.

I am proud to represent these men and women who empower people in developing nations and promote the Peace Corps mission of peace and friendship. These volunteers are making major strides to improve the lives of people and communities around the world.

There is a difference between a military mission and the aspiration for the long-term plans for the country. What we want is a stable enough Afghanistan, able to look after its own security so we can leave without the fear of it imploding... But let's be clear - it's not going to be perfect.

Residuals from Australia, from the Mission Magic show, saved my butt. So there is a reason for everything.

I grew up on food stamps. I come from a very humble background. And I've had many friends that have been destitute - you know, running into trouble - and places like The Midnight Mission have given them hope and have fed them and gotten them back on the right path.

I believed that English-speaking people had a divine mission to civilize the world by making it western, democratic and Christian.

But when one believes that you've been appointed by God for a particular mission in history, you have to be very careful about that, how you speak about that. Where is the self-reflection in that? Where is the humility in that?

We have a responsibility to make sure that the limited resources we have are spent efficiently and effectively and that programs achieve their mission.

I feel very privileged to be part of this mission, and when my nomination was announced, I was really very, very happy to be selected for this mission.

For the first time in history, a private company is organizing a mission to the moon. This mission will inspire countries of the world, citizens, our youth.