"Girls can do anything, for sure. Even running in the mud in heels."

"It ain’t no secret No secret my friend You can get killed just for living In your American skin"

"You can't be afraid of getting old. Old is good, if you're gathering in life. Our band is good at understanding that equation."

"I was looking for some way to put my music to some service on a nightly basis. You go into a town, you play a little music, you leave something behind. That idea connected us to the local community. It was a very simple idea, but it really resonated with me."

"Somebody who can reckon with the past, who can live with the past in the present, and move towards the future - that's fabulous."

"I'm interested in what it means to live in America. I'm interested in the kind of country that we live in and leave our kids. I'm interested in trying to define what that country is. I got the chutzpa or whatever you want to say to believe that if I write a really good about it, it's going to make a difference."

"But I think that your entire life is a process of sorting out some of those early messages that you got."

"When you get fat and lose your hunger. That is when you know the sellout has happened."

"There is something about the melody of 'Thunder Road' that just suggests 'new day.' It suggests morning; it suggests something opening up."

"A good song takes on more meaning as the years pass by."

"I never felt I had enough personal style to pursue being just a guitarist."

"It's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin and can't stand the company."

"Until I realized that rock music was my connection to the rest of the human race, I felt like I was dying, for some reason, and I didn't know why."

"If you listen to the great Beatle records, the earliest ones where the lyrics are incredibly simple. Why are they still beautiful? Well, they're beautifully sung, beautifully played, and the mathematics in them is elegant. They retain their elegance."

"The release date is just one day, but the record is forever."

"When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other was my guitar."

"And whether you're drawn to gospel music or church music or honky-tonk music, it informs your character and it informs your talent."

"I had tried to go to college, and I didn't really fit in. I went to a real narrow-minded school where people gave me a lot of trouble, and I was hounded off the campus - I just looked different and acted different, so I left school."

"The drummer in my first band was killed in Vietnam. He kind of signed up and joined the marines. Bart Hanes was his name. He was one of those guys that was jokin' all the time, always playin' the clown."

"Steve Van Zandt, the poor guy, doesn't get to play enough as it is with me hogging a lot of the solos. Steve has always been a fabulous guitarist. Back from the day when we were both teenagers together, he led his band and played lead and was always a hot guitar player."

"Talk about a dream, try to make it real."

"If I had not been dyslexic, I wouldn't have needed sports. I would have been like every other kid. Instead, I found my one thing, and I was never going to let go of it. That little dyslexic kid is always in the back of your head."

"The truth is everybody does it from time to time. People dial telephone numbers and they get a wrong number only to find that they've read the last two digits backwards. Everybody does it, but dyslexics have this tendency to a higher degree."

"In the fifth grade I discovered something I could do better than the other kids. One day, the teacher set up a bunch of chairs, and she had everyone run to the chairs and back while she timed us. I had the fastest time in the whole school!"