I draw from my family and my friends and I feel like that small-town person. The achievements, the materialistic possessions have really become to mean less. They mean nothing.

When you tune your guitar in a different way, it lends itself to a new way of looking at your songwriting.

It’s interesting when I jog, how much the music makes a difference. You can pretty much count on the Foo Fighters to get your heart rate up.

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about regrets because there’s nothing I can do.

I didn’t get into making music for the fame aspect. There are people who do desire that.

When I reach the point that I write Yesterday, then I can retire.

I become more seasoned, it’s less interesting to try and compete in the pop market.

Steve McQueen was from a time when you didn’t know every little dirty thing about our public figures. He and James Dean were very mysterious, archetypal American heroes.

The greatest hits in some weird way marks the end of something.

Music commands how we feel, dictates what we experience in our feelings.

I wish I was having as much fun as the press reports said I had.

The bands that wrote the big, heroic rock songs – I really wanted to make a record like that.

I got to learn to surf.

Artists have really never had any representation on Capitol Hill, because it’s not the nature of the artist to join together and make a unified presence. Those days kind of died in the ’60s.

A lot of people seem to get preoccupied with what I’m wearing as opposed to the music.

I think everyone became sick of Sheryl Crow. I actually became sick of Sheryl Crow.

Most writers like to maintain some sort of anonymity. For me, making videos was an assault.

Where I fit in is confusing to me.

Music really becomes the soundtrack to the major events to your life.

I have yet to write that one song that defines my career.

I draw from my family and my friends and I feel like that small-town person. The achievements, the materialistic possessions have really become to mean less. They mean nothing.

Some people are really good at maneuvering their careers and images and I’m not one of those people.

I don’t set goals for myself too much, but I’m always trying to write that one great song.

I have been around for a long, long time. I didn’t make it ’til I was older. I went through the period when women were not getting signed, particularly if you were writing songs that were lyrically propelled.

I hate that word, mature, but I guess I am growing up.

The beauty of having a producer is that you have someone who says, You’re finished.

There’s a lot of integrity with musicians; you really still aspire to grow, and be great, to be the best version of yourself you can be.

I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.

It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.

I try to conduct my life with a little levity.

You can’t be in the public eye without making mistakes and having some regrets and having people analyze everything you do.

I’ve only been making records since 1991. When you look at the long-standing careers of people like Joni, it’s not very long!

People don’t realize that I’m really funny and I’m an excellent bridge player.

Beck said he didn’t believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent.

The video forum for me has been a source of great consternation because once you start projecting a look to a song, it robs the listener of their ability to adopt that song and make the lyric their own.

I’ve been really, really blessed. I got to perform on stage with Bob Dylan. I’ve gotten to sing with Mick Jagger.

I don’t really cringe over any of my albums.

There’s so much of it you can’t control. There is no handbook for how to conduct yourself in the public world.

That feeling of freedom, open highways of possibilities, has kind of been lost to materialism and marketing.

I have a golden Lab who goes everywhere with me. He’s a great leveler.

However I am is however I am. When you see me onstage or in the press, there’s not a lot of thought and calculation that goes into it.

Your art kind of changes as you get older, by nature of the fact that you’re hopefully gaining wisdom and you’re starting to watch things with a better overview.

The writing process for me is pretty much always the same – it’s a solitary experience.

I can always tell when people have had plastic surgery.

I hate how I’ve had the mantle set on my shoulders as being against the record label. We’ve had some issues, but that is the nature of business.

A song that sounds simple is just not that easy to write. One of the objectives of this record was to try and write melodies that continue to resonate.

No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.

I’m not much of a partier anymore. I enjoy clarity much more.