“You look like gold. I’ve been fooled before, but now I know I’ve made the mistake in the past. But now I, now I know the difference from gold and brass.”

I write songs and I sing them from the deepest part of my existence and I hope they connect with the deepest part of yours.

When you have everything, you have everything to lose.

But I would never insult the people that love this music and I would never insult the blessing of music in my life and I would never insult myself by playing uninspired music.

I grew up with the Blind Boys’ music. My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center. I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.

Every man’s actions belong to him.

There’s no love like a lost love and no pain like a broken heart.

I get diminishing returns when I bore myself in an interview.

I’m more afraid of falling than I am of flying high. I’m not as scared of dying as I am of growing old. Every battle has its glory and its consequence.

My choice is what I choose to be.

My choice is what I choose to do and if I’m causing no harm it shouldn’t bother you. Your choice is who you choose to be and if you’re causin’ no harm, then your alright with me.

My main concern when travelling around the world is finding a place to skateboard!

My band is the best band in the world, period. So, I insist on every song being better than it is on the record. So by the end of the tour, we have to be playing the song better than how it’s recorded.

It turns out that there is something more magnificent than nature. It’s love.

The music is in the lead here, and a large part of this, I have no idea what I’m doing. I feel a closer bond with the craft of songwriting, stronger than I ever have.

Could’ve sworn I heard you say Amen this morning, showing some kind of sign that you believe. Did it fall from your tongue without warning? Or just another trick to fall from your sleeve?

Fearlessness, absolutely. Discipline. You also need open-minded creativeness that lets everything in. You never want to lose a word or a phrase, yet every one should count. Always the best language possible. And, finally, knowing when to leave it alone. Stop when it’s done.

And that’s it; that’s why I want to teach; that’s the one and only compensation: to make a permanent difference in the life of a child.

The difference between trying and doing is one leads to success, while the other leads to excuses.

Many people do not understand the difference between peace and a peace treaty. If you want to have real peace with normal relations between people, you need to have comprehensive peace.

You know what the difference between a vision and a hallucination is? They call it a vision when other people can see it.

The biggest difference between Kennedy and Nixon, as far as the press is concerned, is simply this: Jack Kennedy really liked newspaper people and he really enjoyed sparring with journalists.

There are many differences between medicine and teaching, but they have much in common. Both involve craft and personal expertise, learned through experience; but both can be informed by the experience of others.

There’s a huge difference between being in love and being in love with the thought of love. Recognize the difference. Never settle.

Out of the thousand writers huffing and puffing through movieland there are scarcely fifty men and women of wit or talent.