"There is a level of snobbery and fickleness in L.A."

"I swim like a fish and I have an amazing kick."

"I shoot from the hip."

"No one saw the recession coming."

"It's very hard when you eat out every day for a living, and a new restaurant comes along and you haven't got that same vigour that you had 10 years ago."

"Loo doors without a decent, large hook are as infuriating as a lock that doesn’t offer you full protection."

"I recall when we opened in New York how the designer locks were impossible to slide shut, often leading to a difficult encounter no matter which side of the door you were on."

"Kitchens are hard environments and they form incredibly strong characters."

"Addicts are selfish, the most selfish people you’ll ever meet. And self-pitying. And manipulative. Always making promises they’ll never keep. They disgust me."

"Famously, I'm somewhat impatient."

"I'm always looking for great songs, and not being much of a songwriter, I depend on great songwriters to send them to me. I go through tons of stuff, and sometimes you just find material that kind of fits and becomes something special."

"I'd say three years ago we played in my hometown of San Antonio for 55,000 people at the Alamodome and walking out there with a crowd like that is just, you're excited, you're scared. There are just so many emotions going on. I still get nervous for things like that until after I sing about the first one or two songs, then I settle down."

"Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys are simply the best band that ever was."

"I get asked sometimes 'What's the highlight of my career?' because I've been doing it for so long, and I always have a hard time coming up with something, because so many good things have happened."

"I think 'Beyond the Blue Neon' is the best I've ever done."

"If you start out trying to achieve a specific thing - like doing stadium shows or going into the studio and doing an album - the end result is what counts."

"My son had toyed with the idea of writing and trying to write a little bit, so that kind of gave me the bug to write also."

"We work hard when we're in the studio, but then when we take our breaks, we walk outside and look around."

"You've got to keep the stage world and your real world separated or you're headed for trouble."

"I've just tried for all of these years to find the best records, the best songs that I could find that fit me, and I've had great people to work with all these years."

"I've been blessed with the ability to sing, and that has taken me so many places I never would have gone otherwise."

"I love to fish offshore for billfish, and have fished all over for them from the Bahamas, St. Thomas, Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico to the Texas gulf. I haven't made it to Australia yet, but someday I'm going."

"In the beginning, I wanted to be successful. I wanted to make and have hit records."

"If twang isn't what I do, I don't know what is."