“A songwriter’s supreme challenge is being complex and simple at the same time.”

People talking without speaking, People listening without hearing, Sounds of Silence.

It’s very helpful to start with something that’s true. If you start with something that’s false, you’re always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin.

We’re living in a certain time, and we’re aware of it. And that’s part of what we’re aware of, along with our own personal aches and pains.

I met my old lover on the street last night, she seemed glad to see me.

I don’t very often think I’ve done a good job. I don’t like the majority of what I do. I shouldn’t say I don’t like it, but I’m not satisfied with almost everything that I do.

The trick is, as I know it, is to care like hell and not give a damn at the same time.

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.

In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.

Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.

Perhaps the most striking assault on the foundations of traditional liberties is a little-known case brought to the Supreme Court by the Obama administration, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project.

It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God’s heaven.

It is the supreme honour that a scientist can receive. Some of the giants in physics and chemistry have received this prize.

I certainly believe there are forces bigger than ourselves, and that we should be searching, individually, for meaning in our lives. But I don’t believe there’s a supreme being, an intelligence that created everything.

There’s a very simple reason for focusing on the nuclear issue. Many, many issues are of supreme importance in one way or another, but if we blow ourselves up with nuclear weapons, no other issue is really going to matter.