“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.”

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.

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.

I’ve never written one note or word of music simply because I think it will make money.

Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through. That includes loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection, and many other problems.

It is not God’s will that you limp along in life believing that you are inadequate.

I started singing before I started talking. And that’s the God’s honest truth. I think it was something that I’ve always loved to do, even if I wasn’t good at it. I just loved ballads.

God is always seeking you. Every sunset. Every clear blue sky. Each ocean wave. The starry hosts of night. He blankets each new day with the invitation, ‘I am here.’

People are interested by talent. God is impressed by character

The point is that if there is no God, then objective right and wrong do not exist. As Dostoyevsky said, “All things are permitted.

Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just. Such a God is an idol of your own.

Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your life.