Lyle Lovett Quotes

If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem and you're screwed.

That's right, you're not from Texas. But Texas wants you anyways.

If it's not too late, make it a cheese-burger

What would we do if we didn't try? We have to try.

You don't have to have anything in common with people you've known since you were five. With old friends, you've got your whole life in common.

Home is where my horse is.

Barbecue sauce is like a beautiful woman. If it's too sweet, it's bound to be hiding something.

Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.

You can't second-guess your audience. You can only do what you think is right. If you do that, your audience will appreciate you.

If Ford is to Chevrolet what Dodge is to Chrysler, what Corn Flakes are to Post Toasties, what the clear blue sky is to the deep blue sea, what Hank Williams is to Neil Armstrong - can you doubt we were made for each other?

When you have a solid upbringing and a strong sense of place, that sustains you. My sense of home never leaves me.

Man, I need to impress her, cause I'd like to undress her.

It's true that I did get the girl, but then my grandfather always said, Even a blind chicken finds a few grains of corn now and then.

I don't know where creativity comes from, but I think everybody has the ability to be creative. I think what's important about creativity starts when you're very young and how we're allowed to experience our imagination. The people who bring us up and teach us are fundamental in either encouraging creativity or discourging creativity. My imagination was always encouraged.

It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost.

I like my audience. I always feel when up on stage performing that I could enjoy having a cup of coffee with any one of them.

Look around and you will see this world is full of creeps like me.

I've never been ready to do a single thing I've ever done in my life. I haven't been prepared enough, haven't studied enough, haven't known enough. You can never be ready. There's just so much to know.

I enjoyed hearing people do their own songs. I became attracted to singer-songwriters. I became interested in them as people; was curious about what they wanted to say.

My favorite Aggie joke? I'm sorry I don't understand the question

I'm really just trying to do things that I enjoy. I'm trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to. I just have to think if I like those different kinds of music, there are other people who aren't so different from me.

Writin songs is like a mystery. The most difficult thing to do is have a good idea. If you have a decent idea, the songs are the easy part. Actually having something to say is the hard part. If you get an idea for a song, then it pulls you along. There are just some ideas that you get that are really hard to edit out; it's hard to stop thinking about some bad ideas. So you just finish it and you end up putting it on a record.

Who keeps on loving you when you've been lying, saying things that ain't what they seem? God does, but I don't. God will, but I won't.

I'm a very lucky man. I get to do the thing I want most in life, write songs and sing them for people, and ride bikes. I love my family. I love my home. I get to work with people I've admired my whole life. It's a pretty good life.

I played guitar when I was young and never really considered it as a way to make a living

I've always thought that writing isn't really that hard. It's having a good idea that's hard.

My music has always been sort of in-between categories. Sometimes record stores - back when there were record stores - they'd put my records in the country music section, but other record stores would put my records in the pop or even the rock section. As long as it's in the store somewhere, I'm OK with it.

When I first was trying to play the clubs around Houston to start playing my own songs, songwriters like Eric Taylor and Vince Bell and Townes Van Zandt and Don Sanders were just really encouraging to me and would let me sit in with them during their sets and introduce me to the person that owned and booked the club.

Every afternoon, I was in the pasture with cattle or fishing and shooting my BB gun. That kind of freedom allows imagination to develop.

I don't feel like I'm on a mission. I'm trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to.

Singing your own songs is all about individual expression

Both my parents worked, so I was home alone a lot, and I would listen to their records. They belonged to the Columbia House record club, so they had records!

I am limited by what I can think of to do-my choices are not so great.

She was ugly from the front, and I said ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly. Well, I could handle it behind her.

Everybody's career is different. In this new age of being able to talk to the whole world at once, the possibilities are staggering, really, to be able to do things yourself. But I've always enjoyed my relationship with the record company.

Beyond hoping that someone will like one of my songs, I don't think about how a song will be received. I just hope that, when somebody hears one of my songs, they'll want to hear it again.

It's really a lot easier to write about things that are problematic. Who wants to hear how happy you are?

I joke that I've never been burdened by having an actual hit. There's something to that. My records have sold enough to make the record company money to help me keep my job. But I've never had anything so firmly ingrained in the mind of the public that I'm expected to repeat it.

Horses teach you patience and how to do things the right way so you can get the right result.

It's important to be successful enough to be able to keep doing what you love.

Kemo Sabe, kiss my ass.

Denice Franke is a sensitive and compelling singer and songwriter.

You have to be really good to get away with smashing a guitar.

The loss of Jerry Garcia feels like the end of an era in the same way it felt when Elvis died and John Lennon was killed.

There's no bad luck, There's just the luck you've found.

Fortunately, I've never had a job

I married her just because she looks like you.

I don't ever try to anticipate my audience. I just write the songs I want to write, and hope people like 'em.

The most important thing you can do as a performer is to be yourself, or be an onstage version of yourself. If youre not being true to yourself, and somebody likes that other version of you, youre kind of stuck.

I'm really in no danger of being perceived as a famous movie actor!