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" If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often. "

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" This is the most challenging activity that humans get into, which is love. You know, where we have the sense that we can't live without love. That life has very little meaning without love. "

" This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can... reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.' "

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

" Out of the thousands who are known or who want to be known as poets, maybe one or two are genuine and the rest are fakes, hanging around the sacred precincts, trying to look like the real thing. "

" My mind was always very cluttered, so I took great pains to simplify my environment, because if my environment were half as cluttered as my mind, I wouldn't be able to make it from room to room. "

" I've got beautiful reviews for all my books, and I'm very well thought of in the tiny circles that know me, but I'm really starving. "

" I never had the sense that there was an end: that there was a retirement or that there was a jackpot. "

" I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use. "

" We're always experiencing joy or sadness. But there are lots of people who've closed down. And there are times in one's life when one has to close down just to regroup. "

" Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. "

" You can keep the body as well-oiled and receptive as possible, but whether you're actually going to be able to go for the long haul is really not your own choice. "

" I can make a couple of good sandwiches: tuna salad and chopped egg salad. And Greek bean soup. I was a cook for my old Zen master for many years. So there were two or three dishes that he liked, you know. Teriyaki salmon, a few things. "

" Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered. "

" I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it. "

" I never had huge amounts of money when I was young. I had huge amounts of fame, and I always had the sense of labor and recompense. I always said I don't want to work for pay, but I want to get paid for my song. "

" In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress. "

" There are some people who come to me for some illumination on their problems. I guess they feel I'm writing about some of the things they themselves are going through. But I don't usually have much help to give - there isn't much you can say to someone in the midst of their own crises. "

" And I had not much of a voice. I didn't play that great guitar either. "

" Music is the emotional life of most people. "

" I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words. "

" I continually blacken pages and scribble away, so I always have a number of songs that are half-finished. "

" I read with some amusement my reputation as a ladies' man. My friends are amused by that, too, because they know my life. "

" When you stop thinking about yourself all the time, a certain sense of repose overtakes you. "

" Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process. "

" I was born in a suit. "

" I have a deep tribal sense. I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people; they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion. "

" I don't have any sense or urgency about any of my writing, actually. I don't think mankind will be damaged if I don't put out a new album or a new book. "

" The fact that my songs take a long time to write is no guarantee of their excellence. "

" All of my writing has guitars behind it, even the novels. "

" Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity. "