To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.

I'm always making a conscious effort to be viable and accessible.

The best thing you've got going for you is individuality.

It's fun to sing sad songs. And it's fun to listen to sad songs. Enjoyable. Satisfying. Something.

To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.

I'm glad there are a lot of guitar players pursuing technique as diligently as they possibly can, because it leaves this whole other area open to people like me.

As the writer, you're always a presence in the song. If you get close to what human beings are like, you're writing about common experience. We all do much the same things, so if you nail somebody, then you've also nailed yourself.

I like the idea of playing in unison with yourself.

I try to make songs visual and tactile to kind of put you into the action.

I just like to entertain myself by sitting down and writing songs.

I probably wrote three-quarters of the songs without an instrument in my hands.

You want the audience to be uncomfortable.

What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.

The thing I do, really, is a communication with audiences more than any achievement through records.

I think the reason kids get into drugs and smoking is they don't have anything to do.

Well, first of all it's entertainment. That stops us becoming too pretentious or thinking we're great artists.

There's a part of me that wishes I'd never said one single solitary word on any subject publicly. Then I could have been the tortured poet, and there's so much mileage in that. But it's too late to stop now.

People want to hear about the extremes of human nature. They want things that are larger than their own lives, and more romantic, and not necessarily of their own experiences.

Amplifying acoustic instruments more than a little is really cheating, and everything becomes a compromise.

It's amazing what some people read into songs.

When you stand up acoustic in front of an audience, you really are a man without any clothes on. And that can be fun - it depends how much of an exhibitionist you are, I suppose. I quite enjoy it.

I try to look for the good in everybody, regardless of the way they're labeled.

I have to remind myself not to set boundaries.

I want people to come to my music without prejudice. I want them to get the music first. And who I am isn't that important. If they like the songs to me that's a good thing.

But music can save your life sometimes. It probably saved me from working in a bank or something. That's a kind of salvation right there.

All audiences should be slightly off balance.

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

Before the trip began we mapped out three primary goals: 1) to see and meet with our American troops, and thank them for their bravery and sacrifice; 2) to assess the security situation in Iraq; and 3) to give our support to Iraq's national unity government.

To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.

None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much.

In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is a rampart of defense.

But this Veterans Day, I believe we should do more than sing the praises of the bravery and patriotism that our veterans have embodied in the past. We should take this opportunity to re-evaluate how we are treating our veterans in the present.

Quality in a classical Greek sense is how to live with grace and intelligence, with bravery and mercy.

Like timidity, bravery is also contagious.

The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice.

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.

The zeal, bravery, and good behavior of the officers and men on the night of June 30, and during July 1, was commendable in the extreme.

Throughout the years, many Christian women have told me of their great respect for the bravery and courage evident in my work, perhaps even gesturing to their own Isis earrings or a Nile River Goddess pendants.

The dangers which threaten us are twofold: First, from the Confederate forces, composed of men whose earnest convictions and reckless bravery it is idle to deny.

Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.

The bitterest creature under heaven is the wife who discovers that her husband's bravery is only bravado, that his strength is only a uniform, that his power is but a gun in the hands of a fool.

I don't think that bravery is about skin. Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need.

Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.

Bravery is believing in yourself, and that thing nobody can teach you.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

History has taught us over and over again that freedom is not free. When push comes to shove, the ultimate protectors of freedom and liberty are the brave men and women in our armed forces. Throughout our history, they've answered the call in bravery and sacrifice.

Let bravery be thy choice, but not bravado.

Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery.

No matter what you think about the Iraq war, there is one thing we can all agree on for the next days - we have to salute the courage and bravery of those who are risking their lives to vote and those brave Iraqi and American soldiers fighting to protect their right to vote.