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 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.

Public opinion polls are rather like children in a garden, digging things up all the time to see how they're growing.

I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary.

Everyone is entitled to our opinion.

Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the later ignorance.

Both politicians and journalists face situations which strain their honesty and humanity. My opinion is that politicians on the average stand up somewhat better than journalists.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

In almost every country there are elements of opinion which would welcome such a conclusion because they wish to return to the politics of the balance of power, unrestricted and unregulated armaments, international anarchy, and preparation for war.

The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyhow.

My original opinion still stands. I don't think he should have put it out.

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

All this flying around got on my nerves. But then I gave the script to Cathy to get her opinion. When she started to laugh, it was like 'That's it!'. I went to LA and I got the part.

As long as you gave it your best shot, even if in the opinion of others "you failed," you didn't fail.