“The abstract music is just more interesting because it doesn’t really have anything to say, but if it is good, it creates thoughts and feelings, and I enjoy that. For me, once the music creates those thoughts and feelings, I begin to write a song about it.”

A lot of talent is a gift, but a lot is also luck. I’m very aware of that. I was born in the right place at the right time. I am also blessed because I’ve never been a sex symbol. I’m spared the embarrassment of acting young.

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

Anthony Heilbut has been a guide and a mentor to me. I know of no one who has the love and depth of knowledge of this extraordinary author.

Breakdowns come, and breakdowns go.

How can you live in the Northeast?

Take me. I’m an ordinary player in the key of C. And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity. Who’s gonna love you when you’re looks are gone? God will. Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.

I’ve got nothing to do today but smile.

The degree of customization possible through your Preferences screens is awesome.

I don’t think [Dylan and the Beatles] influenced me a lot. I think it was inevitable; they were so powerful that you couldn’t really escape the influence.

If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you’ve created a special little thing, and that’s what I’m looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.

Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates. The earth is blue. And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it.

By the time I was 12 or 13, I felt that I was special, because I could play the guitar and write songs.

Having a track record to live up to and the history of successes had become a hindrance. It becomes harder to break out of what people expect you to do.

Much of songwriting is simply a mystery.

I don’t consider myself to be a major talent, so the only solace I can take is to hope I’m growing.

How much can you do with two voices? You can sing thirds or you can sing fifths or you can do a background harmony.

How many people make themselves abstract to appear profound. The most useful part of abstract terms are the shadows they create to hide a vacuum.

An abstract style is always bad. Your sentences should be full of stones, metals, chairs, tables, animals, men, and women.

Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

What if a girl grew up like a boy, with marriage an abstract, someday thought, a thing to think about when she became an adult, a thing she could do, or not do, depending? What would that look and feel like?

I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it’s all we need.

In my case, I was stuck there for quite a while. New York is large enough to be a very abstract city, so nobody cares.

Beauty and happiness and life are all the same and they are pervasive, unattached and abstract and they are our only concern.

A definition of art is that it makes concrete our most subtle emotions. I think the highest form of art is music. It’s the most abstract of all art expression.