“And as far as I’m concerned, it’s like I say, drugs are not the problem. Other stuff is the problem.”

We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life, a simple life, a good life.

I think that America is in danger of losing its adventurous spirit in the cause of some kind of illusion of safety, or substitute of law and order there.

Nobody stopped thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you’ve been to some of those places, you think, ‘How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?’

Nobody wants to get hurt. Nobody wants to hurt anybody. We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life.

You listen to a politician making a speech, and it is like hearing nothing. Whereas, music is unmistakably music.

The implications, to me, are immense. I mean, how far can it go?

Whistle through your teeth and spit cuz, it’s Alright

It doesn’t matter what their music is, you can find something that you can play together, with what their culture is.

Live life expecting the worst, hoping for the best, and living for the future!

We’re not thinking about any kind of power. We’re not thinking about any kind of struggles. We’re not thinking about revolution or war or any of that. That’s not what we want.

I Don’t Think There’s A Good Excuse For Being Unhappy. I’m Not Particularly Unhappy, But I Know What Pain Is. I think That Life Is Characterized By Pain.

I equate Deadheads to people that like black licorice. There aren’t many people that like black licorice, but the ones that do, REALLY REALLY like it! Or buttermilk, or whatever.

Magic is what we do, music is how we do it.

The great thing is the thing of being able to see things through many points of view. That’s enlarging.

Listening. That’s what music is about. You hear it. And I’d listen to it and something would move me one way or another; and I would try and play it.

And for me there’s still more material than 20 lifetimes that I can use up.

I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota.

Romantic love is mental illness. But it’s a pleasurable one. It’s a drug. It distorts reality, and that’s the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw.

I think drugs affect poor people and people of color more than anyone.

I didn’t go for the needle at all. I never cared for drugs, because I saw what they did to most people. I thought that was the end of the road.

I can’t see how an unarmed man rejecting a drug deal ended up dead.

My ministry’s always been one of social activism. I think a responsible minister must be at some levels involved in the social order.

Everyone reaches their point in time where either they die or they get sick of doing drugs.

It started getting debilitating. I enjoy my music a lot better than my drugs.