“There’s nothing that makes me laugh more than being in the situation where you’re not supposed to laugh. Funerals. People crying. Breaking down. Telling you their life. I’m the worst. I’m the worst at that.”

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.

Most of the things you absorb you will ultimately secrete.

For a songwriter, you don’t really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they’re made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.

All that you’ve loved is all you own.

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.

My wife called me a mule. She once said, “I didn’t marry a man; I married a mule!” I kept thinking about it. It was in the back of my head. I think it makes a good title for an album.

You’re innocent when you dream.

I’ve always believed that the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them are there.

I always thought songs are movies for the ears and films are like songs for the eyes.

Time is just memory Mixed in with Desire.

Well, it’s either kiss me or kill me, that’s how I see it.

I don’t think that you should be per­fectly candid and frank about the intimate details of your personal life with the public at large. Subsequently, it creates consider­able personal problems.

There’s always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby.

I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have.

I sold a quart of blood and bought a half a pint of scotch.

I can’t listen to so much music at the same time. I think you really have to have a diet. You’re just processing too much, there’s no place to put it. If you go a long time without hearing music, then you hear music that nobody else hears.

I don’t react to a tragic happening any more. I took so many bad things as a kid and some people think I don’t care about anything. It’s just too hard for me to get emotional. I can’t cry no more.

There are these emotions which are eager to scream aloud, but they settle inside us without a cry.

Occasionally, the sun is eclipsed by the body of a weeping human. Her tears make the soil harden and crust like the top of a burnt load of bread.

Falling down ain’t falling down, If you don’t cry when you hit the floor, It’s called the past cause I’m getting past, And I ain’t nothing like I was before, You ought to see me now.

Sometimes you’ll laugh. Sometimes you’ll cry. Life never tells us, the when’s or why’s. When you’ve got friends, to wish you well. You’ll find your point when. You will exhale.

I’ve painted stars around tears that I’ve cried. And now my pain is a galaxy and every star has a name and every name feels like pain and you’re every star.

If I should die this very day, Don’t cry…cause on Earth We wasn’t meant to stay.

I was aware of people staring at me. No one moved. They seemed almost in trance. I just stared at the clock in the center of the church. When I finished, everyone clapped and started crying.