Well you say that it’s gospel, But I know that it’s only church.
It’s hard to win when you always lose.
As a kid, I did want to be an old-timer, since they were the ones with the big stories and the cool clothes. I wanted to go there. Now, I guess I want to bring that with me and go back in time.
My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.
I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have.
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.
For a songwriter, you don’t really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they’re made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.
I do like books on anatomy. I have to say I’m an amateur physician, I guess.
George Bush is a fan of mine, he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.
Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting.
I don’t go to church on Sunday, don’t get on my knees to pray, or memorize the books of the Bible, I got my own special way.
Well, it’s either kiss me or kill me, that’s how I see it.
George Burns was a Vaudeville performer I particularly loved.
Most songs that aren’t jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs.
Any place is good for eavesdropping, if you know how to eavesdrop.
Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, it’s just god when he’s drunk.
We have a deficit of wonder right now.
I was born in the back seat of a Yellow Cab in a hospital loading zone and with the meter still running. I emerged needing a shave and shouted ‘Time Square, and step on it!’
Disneyland is Vegas for children.
When it’s raining you can’t find enough things to catch it in. When it’s not you can stand out in the middle of the street in a dress and a funny hat and nothing’s gonna make it rain. I go through periods – or spells – when I’m more receptive.