I've also become much more the musician I've always wanted to be.

And I now think that Stratocasters and Telecasters are way cool.

I'm like a twenty-two-year-old kid in a new band trying to get noticed and break through, because the vast majority of people have never seen me play live.

On Eye of the Zombie, I had so-called studio musicians.

I usually destroy unreleased material. It has a way of coming back to haunt you.

I stuck with that size because I could bend the strings so well, and somewhere along the line I must have gotten it into my mind that I had small hands, so I was thinking I'd never be able to play a full-scale guitar, but I also felt like I was cheating or cutting corners.

The only sliding I did was on the kind of instrument that you put on your lap; no Spanish electrics.

No, but I've always felt that with true talent, and a commitment to hard work, it is possible to achieve an enduring respect and appreciation. In other words, I don't take my fans for granted.

The ones I have got great necks; of course, all of the Fenders from that era are incredible.

The Telecaster doesn't really sound that good for the kind of rock and roll that a lot of people played.

I've also become much more the musician I've always wanted to be.

I don't know that all the demons have been beaten, but I'm very, very proud of those songs.

I'm now comfortable playing a lot of the old songs, and I've gotten out a lot of the old equipment.

You should play with real musicians; the best music comes from real people interacting with each other.

Now that I'm older, I like almost anything that's done well, even surf music and instrumentals; I really enjoyed the interviews with the Ventures in your magazine.

When I made Blue Moon Swamp, there was a lot of trial and error; I was trying to find people who would be simpatico with my style, and with what I had in mind for the album.

I wrote that song for my wife, and it's what some guy who's sitting under a tree would be singing to the woman of his life, telling her how wonderful she is. To me, that's more lasting than something that sounds like it belongs on a movie soundtrack.

That song has the full extent of my mandolin abilities; I'm not a good mandolin player at all.

I work hard at that, but the fact that there are a lot of good songs means there are also a lot of really bad songs I've written that you never hear.

But I think beautiful is simple and elegant, like a ballad with simple harmony.

Even though I have often recorded alone, I still feel the best music is made by musicians playing off each other.

I went pretty much for one tone, and I knew at that time that I wanted to play a Rickenbacker.

There's just not a lot of guys around playing like that these days; a lot of steel players are plugging into stomp boxes, trying to sound like Jeff Beck on a steel guitar.

I've studied a lot of great people over the years - Pete Seeger, James Brown - and tried to incorporate elements that I've admired, though I can't say I dance like James.

I thought what I was good at doing was playing real simple guitar licks, since I'd cut my teeth on what Duane Eddy was doing; licks that were simple but had staying power.

Washburn's an old American name, but this one was assembled overseas.

I'm much more energetic now; you might say live performance is my mission.

Even though James Burton was my idol, I didn't think I could carry his shoes back then.

Sometimes I think life is just a rodeo the trick is to ride and make it to the bell.

Sometimes I think life is just a rodeo, the trick is to ride and make it to the bell.

The virtual choir would never replace live music or a real choir, but the same sort of focus and intent and esprit de corps is evident in both, and at the end of the day it seems to me a genuine artistic expression.

Loneliness is a great teacher and a master test of character.

I hope that the United States would cooperate with the partners to reduce its debt. The debt is a problem. The debt is with you, but unfortunately, the debt is not only with you but with us and with the rest of the world because we all, one way or another, are dependent on the dollar.

There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.

I get like a melody that comes up and I try to write it down or record it. Hum it into a tape recorder or write it down on some manuscript paper. It could happen at any time, on the road or off the road, but mostly, you know, at home.

Being a great horseman does not rely on physical strength but more on the mind and sensibility.

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

We're gonna try to have the baby a little while before we name it. We don't want to put it out there, like try and turn him into something before we meet the kid. We want to get a feel for who this kid is before we name him.

I've been working with the land for most of my life; walking it and photographing it. And I love it to bits.

Gender injustice is a social impairment and therefore has to be corrected in social attitudes and behaviour.

My favorite part of a roller-coaster ride is when you're going up and you're slightly scared and really excited. You don't know what's coming next but you know it's going to be good. You can't handle it, go on the carousel.

I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo.

Everyone gets criticized.

The relationship I have with my Hispanic fans is very deep and intricate.

If you want break it down, rock and roll is about saying what you can't say in normal life to girls, so you have to say it in songs.

If the current birth rate, which is the lowest in the major developed countries, continues, there will be no Japanese. Who will pay the enormous debt?

That is simply that Marxism has been tremendously fashionable in our time, so it has infected a very large number of major institutions in many countries of the world. So I suppose that we shouldn't be too surprised that it should infect the church as well.

Paradoxically, those who call for family values also tout the wonders of an unregulated market without observing the subtle cultural links between the family they seek to regulate and the market they hold free.

I like summer. I like warmer weather and long days. I'm one of those silly people who still enjoy lying in the sun - my children are horrified!