“I’m writing for the sake of writing music. Whether it gets heard or not isn’t an issue for me. It keeps my own juices going and my mind active.”

I took a fresh pack of Luckies, a mint called Sen-Sen, my old man’s Trojans.

Sergeant O’Leary is walking the beat, at night he becomes a bar tender.

I have been both praised and criticized. The criticism stung, but the praise sometimes bothered me even more. To have received such praise and honors has always been puzzling to me.

It took me years to write it, they were the best years of my life It was a beautiful song but it ran too long If you’re gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit So they cut it down to 3:05.

You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes, but they’re the only things that you can truly call your own.

Loneliness will get to you somehow But ev’rybody loves you now.

I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.

I’m single but interviewing.

Most people you’d tell “I’m gonna be a musician,” they’d say, “you’re crazy, you’re gonna starve, you’re gonna be poor, a drug addict, go to jail, you’ll never make it, there’s too much competition.

Some love is just a lie of the heart, the cold remains of what began with a passionate heart.

Davey Crocket, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland.

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again

You can pay Uncle Sam with all your overtime, is that all you get for your money?

There are people who have lost every trace of human kindness.

We all end in the ocean. We all start in the streams. We’re all carried along, by the river of dreams.

I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints – the sinners are much more fun.

I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war.

As an actor, I have casting issues. I’m a minority. I don’t have trouble making a living, but as far as being on the food chain of the pecking order of actors, I’m not at the top of it. With the jobs that I do, there are always control issues with directors and producers.

On the most recent battles on health insurance reform, the women led the battle to end gender discrimination by the insurance companies [where] women paid more and got less of a benefit, and also the whole issue of prevention.

The basic building block of peace and security for all peoples is economic and social security, anchored in sustainable development. It is a key to all problems. Why? Because it allows us to address all the great issues-poverty, climate, environment and political stability-as parts of the whole.

We appear to be overplaying this global warming issue as global warming is nothing new.

Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state?

There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation, and this is the key issue in all lives.

Climate change, demographics, water, food, energy, global health, women’s empowerment – these issues are all intertwined. We cannot look at one strand in isolation. Instead, we must examine how these strands are woven together.