“When I look for what I’m going to listen to I go backwards. I’m always going the other way you see. Most people are trying to figure out ‘how do I get in the fast lane going that way?’. I’m going in the other direction. I wanna find the oldest thing to do.”

Although they can do it all the time, you know, they’re far better than me, on a musically, on a theoretical music level. You know, they’re out of my league.

My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice.

It is painful to relive things that have caused emotional crises or whatever and find ways to express that musically.

A British pressing with a compilation of the best stuff really, I mean actually not only that but, these were all kind of semi hits for the people on it in America.

The toughest thing about being a celebrity, I suppose, is being polite when I don’t want to be.

Plant your love and let it grow.

If you hand me a guitar, I’ll play the blues. That’s the place I automatically go.

When all the original blues guys are gone, you start to realize that someone has to tend to the tradition. I recognize that I have some responsibility to keep the music alive, and it’s a pretty honorable position to be in.

I’m an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.

To sing in a lower key is harder work. You have to use your diaphragm more.

They found our hero in the gutter with a diamond ring and a gun.

And if I don’t be there by morning, she’ll know that I must’ve spent the night in jail.

All I am certain of right now is that I don’t want to go anywhere, and that’s not bad for someone who always used to run.

I like solitude. I like the anomalous life. I like a quiet life.

Would you know my name, if I saw you in Heaven?

I remember when I thought of singing as the bit that went between the guitar playing – something I couldn’t wait to get out of the way. Singing was originally like a chore that I didn’t really enjoy.

It was possible, I knew, to live on two planes at once—to have one’s feet planted in reality but pointed in the direction of progress.

Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course. Awareness.

One could only damage oneself through the harm one did to others. One could never get directly at oneself.

People are like dice. We throw ourselves in the direction of our own choosing.

Live and direct.

All forms of meditation strengthen & direct our attention through the cultivation of three key skills: concentration, mindfulness & compassion or loving & kindness.

A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life.

No human life, not even the life of the hermit in nature’s wilderness, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.