“Artie is a singer, and I’m a writer and player and a singer. We didn’t work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that.”

Breakdowns come, and breakdowns go.

How can you live in the Northeast?

Take me. I’m an ordinary player in the key of C. And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity. Who’s gonna love you when you’re looks are gone? God will. Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.

I’ve got nothing to do today but smile.

The degree of customization possible through your Preferences screens is awesome.

I don’t think [Dylan and the Beatles] influenced me a lot. I think it was inevitable; they were so powerful that you couldn’t really escape the influence.

If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you’ve created a special little thing, and that’s what I’m looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything.

Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates. The earth is blue. And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it.

By the time I was 12 or 13, I felt that I was special, because I could play the guitar and write songs.

Having a track record to live up to and the history of successes had become a hindrance. It becomes harder to break out of what people expect you to do.

Much of songwriting is simply a mystery.

I don’t consider myself to be a major talent, so the only solace I can take is to hope I’m growing.

How much can you do with two voices? You can sing thirds or you can sing fifths or you can do a background harmony.

Music is sometimes the only benign avenue of communication between antagonists.

I stepped outside to smoke a J and when I came back to the room, everybody just seemed to move.

There is a moment, a chip in time, when leaving home is the lesser crime.

To live an honest, simple life, filled with creativity, joy, compassion, and a deeper, richer appreciation for the world around us.

Creativity comes from applying things you learn in other fields to the field you work in.

Few sensible authors are happy discussing the creative process–it is, after all, black magic.

In any art, you don’t know in advance what you want to say – it’s revealed to you as you say it. That’s the difference between art and illustration.

I think people associate genre and music style with creativity, but it’s all creativity regardless of what pipeline it comes down.

Creativity is magic. Don’t examine it too closely.

Arthur V. Berger commenting on the music of Aaron Copland: Here is at last an American that we may place unapologetically beside the great recognized creative figures of any other country.

A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one.