Rodney Crowell Quotations

So I set it in a bar and made him say, 'Hey, I'm a drag when I've had a few drinks, you know?' While I was careful to give him ownership of the fact that he was ranting, it's certainly my beliefs. To me, the presidential election was a smokescreen, a diversion. From my point of view, the engine room for what's wrong is in Congress. That's really the connection between the people and government.

I don't think it will ever be my style to take a big mallet and just ... bust the window with it, ... I have to get there in a more subtle way.

Guy came to my house, walked in the door, and the first thing he said to me was, 'Shut up,' ... And when Guy takes that kind of stance, you listen. He said, 'We've got something to do.' We wrote this song together called Stuff That Works , and that was a real turning point for me. That's when Guy kind of reintroduced me to myself.

We did a show in New York the other day, and after we played The Obscenity Prayer , a woman came up to me and said, 'I'm buying your record as soon as it comes out, because the Dixie Chicks can kiss my (expletive), too!'

What I write, only I can write, because of my singular sensibility, so I made a deal with the creative process: I would try to live in a heightened state of awareness, and I would let the songs come, not force them to please someone other than myself.

Epictetus was a peasant child born about 50 A.D. who grew up to be a well-known Stoic philosopher, ... In modern buzz-word speak, he was the inventor of 'What people think of me is none of my business.' So I got really hooked on him.

I wanted to dismantle any show-business pretense and take this thing straight as a human being, ... So I said, 'I'm gonna write this, and where I think I'm great, I'm gonna say it, and where I think I'm not, I'm gonna say it. And I'm gonna try to love and accept myself along the way.'

So recently I went back and walked it, and it was only 24 blocks. Walking up Wayside Drive from Avenue P up to past Navigation?You know it's still a Pentecostal church, only it's a Spanish one now.

It's Alright, Ma' would be the prototype for that tune, I freely admit, ... When I was 12 years old, or however old I was when Bringing It All Back Home came out, I'd just skip back and forth endlessly between 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' and 'It's Alright, Ma' and 'Mr. Tambourine Man,' and now my Dylan roots are showing big time.

Democracy won't work if we're asleep...It's a wicked world and we're all in it/But that could change in a New York minute...So pray for peace until you're hoarse/And maybe fear will run its course.

He speaks four letter language because his mind is small. His voice is like venom, I don't like him at all.

Every now and then I'll get seduced by the idea of money, and I'll take a stab at that...and I fall flat on my ass. I've never written a lasting song with that mindset. It doesn't work.

It’s hard to kiss the lips at night/That chew your ass out all day long.

When I was 12 years old, or however old I was when Bringing It All Back Home came out, I'd just skip back and forth endlessly between 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' and 'It's Alright, Ma' and 'Mr. Tambourine Man,' and now my Dylan roots are showing big time.

God gave me wisdom, but the devil's got style.

It evoked Picasso and Miles Davis for me — two great artists who totally indulged themselves in their work and who they were, but they certainly didn't give a damn what other people thought.

If you get a song right for its usage at the time, it can be useful to others. ...Those songs are more friendly to other artists looking for material.

Time to go inward, man, I hope I have the nerve, to take inventory of the causes that I serve.

In life's rich beauty pageant we put children on a stage, said flash your soft white belly child, but just don't act your age.

Don't compromise your heart for something crass.

A fist in the face is all you deserve from love you've misplaced.

Time to go inward would you believe that I'm afraid to stare down the barrel of choices I have made.

You learn how to do good work by being honest with yourself.

On her new LP, Shatter, Jude Johnstone examines heartbreak and loss with such tender resignation that I wept in acknowledgement of its artful simplicity. A lesson in melodic grace delivered by as fine a singer-songwriter as any I know.

[My parents] worked hard all week long, and the way they celebrated and rejoiced in life was by making music on weekends. And that music was Country Music.

Try but don't try too hard. Just try hard enough, and things will go better.

The poetry of country music will survive.

I am deeply saddened by the loss of my children`s grandfather and my very dear friend. I loved big John with all my heart. ... Johnny Cash will, like Will Rogers, stand forever as a symbol of intelligence, creativity, compassion and common sense.

I figure as an artist the best thing you can do is follow your heart - and if your heart is marketable, then you win.

Pain comes like the weather, but joy is a choice.

If you're dedicated, if it's something that lives and breathes in your heart, then you've simply got to go ahead and do it.