“I won’t be righteous again. I’m not sure anymore.”

Normally, if someone goes bankrupt, you wipe out the debt and get a fresh start. But that’s not permitted with student loans. So the effect is to impoverish many graduates with very high debts.

I remember reading about how the decline of the steel industry had been affecting the Lehigh Valley, and I decided that’s what I was going to write the song about.

People pay a lot of money to go see shows now, they don’t wanna know about your technical problems, or if you’re not feeling good, they don’t wanna know we have a glitch. It’s their night, you better do something to earn that money.

Where have you been hanging out lately honey? You can’t dress trashy ’til you spend a lot of money.

When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created.

my belonging to relief society has renewed, strengthened, and committed me to be a better wife and mother and daughter of God. my heart has been enlarged with gospel understanding and with love of the Savior and what He’s done for me. so to you, dear sisters.

In every heart there is a room, A sanctuary safe and strong, To heal the wounds from lovers past, Until a new one comes along

Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness But it’s better than drinkin’ alone.

Discipline is knowing what to do. Knowing when to do it. Doing it to the best of your abilities. Doing it that way every single time.

Shut up before I drop yo ass off at Koreatown. Now hold on, America, don’t start writing no letters. I’m just kidding. But am I lying?

Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose.

My voice is like a car that I get into and drive but I don’t know where I’m going. And I record everything.

You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings. … My songs are like my kids.

I always loved music, so I would probably either be in a band with another group of people, or an arranger, a producer, a musicologist, a music history guy, something to do with music. Either that, or I would probably be in jail. Or dead.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

Don’t wait for answers, just take your chances. Don’t ask me why.

Don’t say you can do something when you really can’t.

You can kill the body but not the spirit.

The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money.

There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.

Not since Ancient Greece have cities been thought of as the ideal living environment for humans. And that was so long ago it predates the invention of trousers.

When I write I inhabit a personality that is and is not me.

Some say it is best not to go near the center of time.