Quotes

I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.

The sole indiscretion in my professional life. - 1994 BBC radio interview detailing his regret on revealing Janis Joplin's name, for whom he'd written, "Chelsea Hotel No. 2

I always considered myself a minor writer. My province is small, and I try to explore it very, very thoroughly.

We used to play music for fun. Much more than now. Now nobody picks up a guitar unless they're paid for it.

My songs last about 30 years - that's about the lifespan of a Volvo. But they're designed to last as long as possible. My own critical examination of the songs is very severe: if it can survive examination by the heart, the mind and the gut, then I think the song can last a little while.

I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group. It felt a lot easier. (On his metamorphosis from poet to musician)

There is no difference between a poem and a song. Some were songs first, and some were poems first and some were simultaneous. All of my writing has guitars behind it, even the novels.

I had wonderful love, but I did not give back wonderful love. I was unable to reply to their love. Because I was obsessed with some fictional sense of separation, I couldn't touch the thing that was offered me, and it was offered me everywhere.

I like the life on the road because it is so regulated and deliberate. Everything funnels down to the concert. You know exactly what to do during the day and you don't have to improvise.

[on his plan, as he turns eighty, to resume smoking] I'm really looking forward to this moment. A young nurse in a white uniform, white lisle stockings, carrying a pack of cigarettes on a silver tray will walk across the stage..and the pack will be opened. It will be gleaming like the pillars of the Parthenon. And she'll light me up. It's going to be good.

Before the pesky little problem of losing everything I had, I had the feeling I was treading water - kind of between jobs. A bit at loose ends. When the money problem arose, what bothered me most was that I was spending all my time with lawyers, accountants, forensic accountants.. I thought, if God wants to bore me to death I guess I have to accept it.