“You say how you feel, and songs don’t lie. Songs are the most honest form of human expression there is–there’s nothing that lies about a song.”

Surfing music is dead. It was just a summer craze for kids on the beach. I’m finished with it.

I’d earned over a million dollars by the time I was old enough to vote.

I meditate and I also think about meditation. Which is funny. I think about Maharishi, about just the idea of meditating. It gives me something.

I’m not a genius. I’m just a hard-working guy.

I’m doing good. I’ve had a slight nervous breakdown in the ’60s. I got through that. And I got through the ’70s. And I was in a doctor’s program during the ’80s and then I met Melinda and we’ve been together ever since. I’ve got a happy life.

You don’t really know what to believe until the Government denies it.

Gershwin inspired me very much. The concept of ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ was inspired by ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ – not influenced, but inspired.

I’m just a shy and retreating kind of person. Sometimes I get in a real talkative mood – but not very often.

If you’re going to write a song, try to get together with a collaborator because it’s better to write with collaborators.

Any article’s good. Long as it’s publicity, I think that’s all that matters. I think it’s advancement for my career.

I play piano all the time. I’m always at my piano, playing music.

So it’s 1976 and we’re still riding on our past success. I mean I’ve gone on like that for I don’t know how long.

I sit and I write automatically. I don’t really try to write. My subconscious mind takes over and writes the songs for me. Songs come very easily for me. When I’m inspired, it takes me 20 minutes to write a song.

I think about God, yes, and I wonder if there is a God. And if there is a God, will God please help me through my hard trips.

The idea of taking a song, envisioning the overall sound in my head and then bringing the arrangement to life in the studio…well, that gives me satisfaction like nothing else.

I have an instinct for music, or a feeling about it, and I’ll have my feelings guide my hands.

Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence, and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind.

Writing for me is a dragnet that carries everything away with it: expressions and figures of speech, postures, feelings, thoughts, troubles. In short, the lives of others.

Nature is not our enemy, to be raped and conquered. Nature is ourselves, to be cherished and explored.

Shamanism has always known this, and shamanism has always, in its most authentic expressions, taught that the path required allies.

Who wants to kill you? The guy asked. He was still looking over his shoulder, but his expression was puzzled. Theres nobody there, the girlfriend told me. Youre making them think they cant see you, arent you? I said to patch, awed by his power even as i despised his use of it.

Love was the most savage monster of all.

I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes.

Sacrifice is a state of mind in which our thoughts turn with longing [toward Heaven, the Ancestors], It is the supreme expression of loyalty, love, and respect.