“Music is made out of nothing but some fairly simple rules . . . The notes themselves amount to almost nothing. But why some particular arrangement of these notes should have such a profound effect on our emotions is a mystery beyond even the hope of comprehension.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Stella Maris
“A whole lot of magic has to happen to make music. A whole lot of minds have to see something invisible. The act of making music — that could be spiritual. You’re taking something that’s not physically seen and you’re bringing it from nowhere, pulling it from thin air, so people can experience it.”–Valerie June, 2021
“I have found that the only thing that does bring you happiness is doing something good for somebody who is incapable of doing it for themselves.” —David Letterman
“I get irritated with the world. I get irritated with politicians. I get very irritated with governments and with corporations. But in terms of imagination – my imagination is always fertile. I’m always thinking of my own things or constantly engaged by the things that other people do.” —Patti Smith
“I guess I just process death differently than some folks. Realizing you’re not going to see that person again is always the most difficult part about it. But that feeling settles, and then you are glad you had that person in your life, and then the happiness and the sadness get all swirled up inside you. And then you’re this great, awful candy bar, walking around in a pair of shoes.” —John Prine, quoted by Pitchfork, 2018
read rememberances in Rolling Stone and The New York Times
“Here’s another one from our tiny attic sessions we did in January. We miss playing together and we miss playing for our fans but we feel inspired by the connection and community that’s resulted from everyone trying to get thru this together. This song is a good reminder not to sweat the small stuff. Enjoy and be safe!”
“When I write something simple I’m always really proud of it. When you write something that simple with that much air in it and the whole premise behind it is something pretty obvious – that everybody wants to be happy and free – the song is sort of an exercise in not forgetting that’s what you really want and what you really need. We can get caught up in a lot of other stuff.” —Steve Earle, 2016
click here for the full rolling stone interview with Earle and Shawn Colvin
“When you look at art made by other people, you see what you need to see in it.” —Alberto Giacometti
