"Every man at some point in his life is gonna lose a battle. He's gonna fight and he's gonna lose. But what makes him a man is that in the midst of that battle, he does not lose himself."

“My songs, well, they are sad, but in all of them the person singing them - me or whoever - is actually still trying and hasn't given up yet.”

Source : "Crooked Fingers". Interview with Alison Fields, pitchfork.com. March 1, 2002.

“Learning what you don't want to do is the next best thing to figuring out what you want to do.”

“Merely looking at the world around us is immensely different from seeing it.”

Source : Frederick Franck (1993). “Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action”, Bantam

“I want to be one of those people, be they writers, poets, musicians, who leaves clues for the next generation. The really good people leave clues that help feed the human race. That's my aspiration.”

“Traveling in Europe made me understand that America has an island mentality: No one exists except us. There's a whole other world out there, but most Americans - all they know is America, the marketing plan.”

“I make jokes about it, but it's the truth that I kind of patterned my look after the town tramp. I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blond and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Momma used to say, "Aw, she's just trash," and I thought, That's what I want to be when I grow up. Trash.”

Source : Tillie Olsen (2013). “Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I, and Other Works”, p.22, U of Nebraska Press

“Everyone thought the acquisition strategy was extremely risky because no one had ever done it successfully. In other words, it was innovative.”

“I'm an actor's director. I love it when talented actors can bring characters to life.”