“Everybody now thinks that Nashville is the coolest city in America.”

I was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death.

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you’ve got.

Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that’s stripped down.

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.

The most important thing for me is my family, and my health and happiness, and making sure everyone’s cool.

Never lose faith in real rock and roll music. Never lose faith in that. You might have to look a little harder, but it’s always going to be there.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

There’s always gonna be rock n’ roll bands, there’s always gonna be kids that love rock n’ roll records, and there will always be rock n’ roll.

There’s nothing I’d rather do than make music. It’s the love of my life.

Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do.

If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s gathering people together to do something fun.

That’s one of the great things about music. You can sing a song to 85,000 people and they’ll sing it back for 85,000 different reasons.

If it weren’t for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.

How come drummers leave their drumsticks on the dashboard of their car? So they can park in the handicapped spaces.

The human element of making music is what’s most important.

I’ve experienced great things, I’ve experienced great tragedies. I’ve done almost everything I could possibly ever imagine doing, but I just know that there’s more.

America, like all nations, has to renounce war.

Everyone across America is tightening their belts. The only place it hasn’t happened is D.C.

We obviously have to honor the commitments that have been made to the people who are already retired or near the retirement age. But we need to tell the truth about the fact that when we set the retirement age at age 65 in America, life expectancy was only 62.

It is so great to sleep in safe, glorious, beautiful America. I just cannot get over it.

Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached.

From what we’ve heard about George W., he has a lot issues that he wants to run on. They’re positive. They’re good. He thinks he’s got a good vision for America.

. . . learning never ends, and as we enter the next century, it will be more and more important for all Americans to be lifelong learners. . . . every one of us can contribute in some way to a better-educated America.

The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.