“Environment affects me a great deal. A lot of the songs were written after the sun went down. And I like storms, I like to stay up during a storm. I get very meditative sometimes, and this one phrase was going through my head: `Work while the day lasts, because the night of death cometh when no man can work.' I don't recall where I heard it. I like preaching, I hear a lot of preaching, and I probably just heard it somewhere. Maybe it's in Psalms, it beats me. But it wouldn't let me go. I was, like, what does that phrase mean? But it was at the forefront of my mind, for a long period of time...”

“A lot of people don't like the road, but it's as natural to me as breathing. I do it because I'm driven to do it, and I either hate it or love it. I'm mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it's the only place where I'm happy. It's the only place you can be who you want to be. You can't be who you want to be in daily life. I don't care who you are, you're going to be disappointed in daily life. But the cure-all for all that is to get on the stage, and that's why performers do it. But in saying that, I don't want to put on the mask of celebrity. I'd rather just do my work and see it as a trade.”

“Well, I try my best to be just like I am,But everybody wants you to be just like them,They sing while you slave and I just get bored”

“I can identify with other people and situations, but I tend not to. I would rather recall things from my own life, and I don't have to force myself. . . . Just being in certain environments triggers a response in my brain, a certain feeling I want to articulate. For some reason, I am attracted to self-destruction. I know that personal sacrifice has a great deal to do with how we live or don't live our lives.”

“Q: Is it still possible nowadays to influence the world by songs? To be political by means of messages?A: No, there are newspapers for that. When people want to deal with the world, they should watch television.Q: That's very passive.A: The world has become like that. People are going to the football stadium, they don't play themselves anymore.Q: Did you ever think you could be politically active through your songs?A: No, no, no. If I had wanted to do that, I would have gone to Harvard or Yale, would have studied and would have a become a politician after that.”

“Last night I danced with a stranger, but she just reminded me you were the one.”

“Well I knew when I first laid eyes on herI could never be freeOne look at her and I knew right awayShe should always be with meWell the dream dried up a long time agoDon't know where it is anymoreTrue to life, true to meWas the girl from the red river shoreWell I'm wearing the cloak of miseryAnd I've tasted jilted loveAnd the frozen smile upon my faceFits me like a gloveWell I can't escape from the memoryOf the one I'll always adoreAll those nights when I lay in the armsOf the girl from the red river shoreWell we're living in the shadows of a fading pastTrapped in the fires of timeI've tried not to ever hurt anybodyAnd to stay out of the life of crimeAnd when it's all been said and doneI never did know the scoreOne more day is another day awayFrom the girl from the red river shore.”