Steve Earle Quotes

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

America's criminal justice system isn't known for rehabilitation. I'm not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

The singer-songwriter has always played music that was stylistically rooted in the '30s and the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. But the fact of the matter is that none of us remember the Depression firsthand.

You can go out and find ways to make your own record and get it out there now. If you really want to, you can be heard. Keep things simple. Learn to go out and play solo. That's a really really good thing to learn, if you're a singer-songwriter. Don't be dependent on a band because you may not always be able to afford one.

I don't believe that songwriting has to be profound, but I truly believe that it's a crime for you to go outta your way for it not to be.

I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre.

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.

Every day on Earth is another chance to get it right.

I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.

What's important is you wake up in the morning and something doesn't exist, and when you finish you day's work something is in the world that wasn't there before.

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

If I can get Me out of the way, I can do anything.

The reason music became so powerful to our generation is that it's art you can consume in your car, and we were driving around a lot.

I don't care what's happening in the mainstream of country music. I haven't in a long time.

My objection to the death penalty is based on the idea that this is a democracy, and in a democracy the government is me, and if the government kills somebody then I'm killing somebody.

I'm not a racist, but I do have to work at not being a racist, because of where I grew up.

If there is such a thing as a workaholic, I'm it, and that's what passes for leisure.

People hate good books to be over. I wish I could write a 700-page book.

Maybe I'm not as big a star as Bruce Springsteen because I'm not as good. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I still have an audience of a certain size. I think it's one of the things I'm luckiest.

I don't type fast. I type with three fingers - two on one hand, and I only get one going on the other. I think my thumb's in there, but I'm not sure. I may be no better than an orangutan when it comes to that.

I do not believe Tony Blair was a fundamentally good man who went bad. I believe he was evil in the first place.

Me, I'm spiritually retarded, I need to be knee deep in water with a fly rod in my hands, that's about as close to God as I get.

I have no doubt in mind that I justify the space I take up in the world.

My therapist says that I choose women that I couldn't possibly succeed in a relationship with because I really want to be alone. Which sounds complicated and convoluted to me, but I don't know. Maybe she's right. There's a part of me that wants that.

Like most kids, I grew up singing 'This Land Is Your Land' in grammar school, but with the most radical verses neatly removed. This was before I knew it was a Woody Guthrie song.

You know I ain't never prayed before 'Cause it always seemed to me That prayin's the same as beggin' Lord, I don't take no charity.

I'm a very disciplined person when it comes to my work, but discipline can't save m from being a drug addict.

Greg Trooper writes great songs, including one of my very favorite songs in the world, Little Sister. On top of all that, there's his voice - an instrument I have coveted for 15 years.

I really believe that if I make records that are indispensable to my audience, they'll go out and spend money to buy them, even if they've already downloaded them. If they can afford it. If they can't, I'd rather they be able to download it than not get it at all.

I don't separate writing songs from poetry and short fiction. In the area where I work in my house, there's a word processor and a guitar.

Critics are notoriously liberal with their use of the term 'genius'.

I grew up counterculture. I'm essentially a hippie, and I'm essentially a folkie.

I love baseball. I'll probably end up one of those old farts who go to spring training in Florida every year and drive from game to game all day.

I don't think I'm a political songwriter as much as I am just a political person. I think it's in my fabric.

I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

Poetry is the hardest thing that there is. It fascinates me, so I want to write more of it.

The idea that murder victims' families are best served by continuing the cycle of violence is something that I consider to be not only a lie, but criminally negligent. You lie to victims' families when you tell them they're going to receive closure if they participate in the process and witness the execution of a human being.

From the moment [Bob] Dylan arrived as a songwriter, he was [so] much better than everybody else around.

I've been a serial husband, and I've done it badly every time.

I'm supposed to make people cry, but not by manipulating.

Fundamentalism, as practiced by the Taliban, is the enemy of real thought, and religion, too.

Every country that's ever been the most powerful country in the world ceases to be the most powerful country in the world at some point.

My dad was in a wheelchair and on oxygen for the last few years of his life.

Back then, the business depended on bohemians. ... They needed Kristofferson and Roger Miller ..It was the tail end of something...the last Tin Pan Alley. ...and we were the night shift! They gave us keys, because they knew the best songs weren't written in daylight.... We got our keys taken away several times...me and Guy Clark.

I have a theory that the people who cook in jails are British chefs.

I had everything I need to get me killed.

I wish I was as sure about things as Bill Monroe was sure about things.

Gregory Corso used to get really pissed when people called Bob Dylan a 'poet.' After writing poetry for a few years, I can understand that.