I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy.
Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who's connected with it, the studio's gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing that's left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago.
I'm just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
George Burns was a Vaudeville performer I particularly loved.
I always liked the idea that America is a big facade. We are all insects crawling across on the shiny hood of a Cadillac. We're all looking at the wrapping. But we won't tear the wrapping to see what lies beneath.
Oh, I got a beautiful 1959 Cadillac Coupe DeVille four-door. No one will ride in it with me.
Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.
Most people don't care if you're telling them the truth or if you're telling them a lie, as long as they're entertained by it. You find that out really fast.
Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs.
Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way.
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
I look for things that are left of center, something you've only seen your whole life, but never heard. Hit it! With a stick! I have a guitar made out of a 2x4 that I bought in Cleveland.
I didn't really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was looking for my own voice, as a writer, y'know? And a world I could call my own.
George Bush is a fan of mine, he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.
I'm so horny the crack of dawn better watch out.
I don't like the word 'poetry,' and I don't like poetry readings, and I usually don't like poets. I would much prefer describing myself and what I do as: I'm kind of a curator, and I'm kind of a night-owl reporter.
When you're a kid and you're trying to find your own voice, it's rather daunting to hear somebody like Howlin' Wolf, because you know that you'll never achieve that.
If you are recording, you are recording. I don't believe there is such a thing as a demo or a temporary vocal.
I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas.
I think this whole division between the genres has more to do with marketing than anything else. It's terrible for the culture of music.