“People take on the shapes of the songs and the stories that surround them, especially if they don't have their own song.”

“The important thing about songs is that they're just like stories. They don't mean a damn unless there's people listenin' to them.”

“Each person who ever was or is or will be has a song. It isn't a song that anybody else wrote. It has its own melody, it has its own words. Very few people get to sing their song. Most of us fear that we cannot do it justice with our voices, or that our words are too foolish or too honest, or too odd. So people live their song instead.”

“Songs remain. They last...A song can last long after the events and the people in it are dust and dreams and gone. That's the power of songs.”

“A song can last long after the events and people in it are dust and dreams and gone.”

“It begins, as most things begin, with a song.”

“The right song can turn an emperor into a laughingstock, can bring down dynasties.”