All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication. All the poet has to do is listen. The poet is not an important fellow. There will also be another poet.
I don't think I'm making any great statements, and I certainly don't think I'm making art.
I think it's great when writers get recognition; it doesn't happen very often. I just don't want that writer to be me. Let it be Aaron Sorkin or, you know, somebody good.
Heck, I'm no Henry Mancini or Michel Legrand. I just play the guitar and write songs.
My neighbors don't care that I'm an author. It's inherently ego-inhibiting.
There are all kinds of pretensions about art, but I'm just a guy who sings for his supper.
And do you agree with me, that the first condition of an artist should be to bear respect toward what is great, and to bow to it and acknowledge it and not attempt to extinguish great flames for the sake of making his own rushlight burn more brightly?
A true artist is one who, even after doing a lot, he reminds himself that he hasn't done anything.
As a writer I'm merely a journalist who has learned to write better than others.
As a writer, I always try as hard as possible to get out of the way of the story, so maybe that's the most important thing my readers should know - I'm all about the story, not about the ego.
The lyrics are constructed as empirically as the music. I don't set out to say anything very important.
Mike Judge, who I've become friends with over the years never took himself seriously as an artist.
There's not some idea I'm going to create a work that's going to change everybody's consciousness.
