I hate films. Films make me sick now, and if something makes me sick, I always back off.

Music is fragile: people die, and it's forgotten.

I don't like being watched, and I don't like being an entertainer.

Back in the early '70s, when Susie and I were first married, we had a little house that we rented, and we used to have parties. People would come, and they wouldn't leave. I used to get so tired. I'd put on the Stanley Brothers, 'Songs for the Good People,' and the house would clear in five minutes. It was not liked; it was alien. It was weird.

People who aren't as interested in recorded music as they used to be will say, 'Oh, 'Buena Vista?' Loved it.' And I'll say, 'Well, how about any of my other recent records. I've been doing some pretty good ones. You like those?' And they go, 'Huh?'

Chavez Ravine is the dawn of Chicano consciousness.

If you're white working with non-white people, you will be branded as a colonialist by some people, regardless of your efforts or intentions.

People who get together, regardless of other structures, will find something in common. They are bound to. That was the Pete Seeger let's-all-sing theory.

All I know is, I play the guitar, beat it out, and sing a song that has some damn resonance that we feel as musicians. We send it out and people get it, and that's a good thing.

I've tended to look at my albums as research and development. I was just trying to get someplace new on each one.

I give up on pop music. As far as a commercial entity, as far as pop music goes, I quit; I absolutely throw in the towel. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I can't be what they need you to be.

I love listening to gospel records.

The ocean is very comfortable. I could never live inland.

With country, it's hard to penetrate the thick layers of commercialism that have been applied like shellac coatings over the real thing.

R&B and all that stuff was always very spare and spontaneous. Nobody made those records under solid gold situations. It was just in and out, and you didn't labor over the thing. I like music like that.

Promoters don't book you 'cause they like you; they do it 'cause there's good business to be done.

Nat King Cole - I listen to him a lot.

I always think you should push your envelope every chance you get.

Everyone thought my first album would be instrumental, but I didn't want to do it - it took me eight months to make.

I'm sort of an osmotic fellow.

Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking.

The thing I always found about the gospel music was that it reached further into your being if you like, your mind. It takes hold of you - especially if you sing it and play it.

Travelling is hard. I'm no traveller. I hate flying, and I hate hotels.

After all is said and done and institutions fail, people still have some ability to care for each other.