Truman Capote is really an interesting cat.
— Steve Earle
Making art in America is sort of a political statement in and of itself. It's not the best environment for that sometimes.
I think it's obvious that democracy is something that is contagious, and it always has been.
Like most kids, I grew up singing 'This Land Is Your Land' in grammar school, but with the most radical verses neatly removed. This was before I knew it was a Woody Guthrie song.
Me, I'm spiritually retarded, I need to be knee deep in water with a fly rod in my hands, that's about as close to God as I get.
I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.
Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.
I still write more songs about girls than anything else.
I don't think I'm a political songwriter as much as I am just a political person. I think it's in my fabric.
I think the singer/songwriter genre is going to be like bluegrass and jazz. You can make a living at it, but it's not part of the musical mainstream anymore.
Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre.
I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.
If I can get Me out of the way, I can do anything.
You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.
My politics were really radical when I was younger, and then I moderated like everyone else does when they start having kids.
San Antonio is like a military town. It's like literally - when I was growing up there, there were five Air Force bases, plus Fort Sam Houston. I was always sort of near the military.
All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.
If there is such a thing as a workaholic, I'm it, and that's what passes for leisure.
Sonnets are guys writing in English, imitating an Italian song form. It was a form definitely sung as often as it was recited.
I don't usually read reviews.
