Steve Earle Quotes

I grew up counterculture. I'm essentially a hippie, and I'm essentially a folkie.

- Steve Earle

Up, Essentially, Grew, Hippie

San Antonio is like a military town. It's like literally - when I was growing up there, there were five Air Force bases, plus Fort Sam Houston. I was always sort of near the military.

- Steve Earle

Air Force, Air, Bases, San Antonio

The singer-songwriter has always played music that was stylistically rooted in the '30s and the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. But the fact of the matter is that none of us remember the Depression firsthand.

- Steve Earle

Fact, Always, Stylistically

In New York, I'm around a lot of the reasons I started playing music in the first place. I live right behind Matt Umanov Guitars. I live on the street that Suze Rotolo and Bob Dylan were walking down on the album cover. I recognize the history.

- Steve Earle

Behind, Around, Reasons, Matt

I'm from Texas. I hitchhiked to Tennessee when I was 19 years old, and it is really beautiful in Tennessee.

- Steve Earle

Beautiful, Texas, Old, Tennessee

Actually, in its purest form, Islam is incredibly tolerant. That makes what's going on in the world really bizarre.

- Steve Earle

Going, Tolerant, Bizarre, Purest Form

Me, I'm spiritually retarded, I need to be knee deep in water with a fly rod in my hands, that's about as close to God as I get.

- Steve Earle

Deep, Hands, Need, Retarded

I think it's obvious that democracy is something that is contagious, and it always has been.

- Steve Earle

Think, Always, Been, Contagious

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

- Steve Earle

Best, Cowboy, Van, Coffee Table

I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.

- Steve Earle

Think, Always, Biggest, Biggest Obstacle

It amazes me that the most Christian funerals are the most barbaric funeral rites of passage that are celebrated anywhere in the world.

- Steve Earle

Passage, Amazes, Anywhere, Barbaric

America's criminal justice system isn't known for rehabilitation. I'm not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

- Steve Earle

Concept, Sure, Criminal Justice System

New Orleans is a unique environment.

- Steve Earle

Environment, New, Orleans, New Orleans

I love 'Harry Potter.' I love those books. That started because I lived with a woman who had kids who were, like, 10 and 7 when they moved in with me.

- Steve Earle

Love, Woman, Like, Potter

Like most kids, I grew up singing 'This Land Is Your Land' in grammar school, but with the most radical verses neatly removed. This was before I knew it was a Woody Guthrie song.

- Steve Earle

Song, Grammar School, Verses

Poetry is the hardest thing that there is. It fascinates me, so I want to write more of it.

- Steve Earle

Want, More, Hardest Thing, Fascinates

Truman Capote is really an interesting cat.

- Steve Earle

Interesting, Cat, Capote

My son was diagnosed with autism. He's OK, he makes eye contact, but he doesn't talk. He needs eight hours a day of very intensive school, and you wouldn't even believe me if I told you how much it costs.

- Steve Earle

Believe, Eight, Very, OK

My dad was in a wheelchair and on oxygen for the last few years of his life.

- Steve Earle

Wheelchair, Last, His, Oxygen

I promise you that I did not become an addict because of anything to do with the behavior of either of my parents. Everybody has to make their own choices.

- Steve Earle

Own, Promise, Everybody, Addict

As much as I'd like to think and as much as people mistakenly think my audience is blue collar people in the heart of America, my audience is basically, in the States, an NPR audience. I play college towns in the summer because that's who comes to see me.

- Steve Earle

Summer, College, Play, Mistakenly

Gregory Corso used to get really pissed when people called Bob Dylan a 'poet.' After writing poetry for a few years, I can understand that.

- Steve Earle

People, Understand, Used, None

The drama teacher that I had in high school, back in Texas, was the only teacher who didn't kick me out of his class. He turned me on to 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.' I had picked up Dylan with 'Bringing It All Back Home,' and he turned me on to the first couple of albums, which I hadn't heard.

- Steve Earle

Couple, Albums, Turned, None

Every country that's ever been the most powerful country in the world ceases to be the most powerful country in the world at some point.

- Steve Earle

Country, Most, Ever, Ceases

You can go out and find ways to make your own record and get it out there now. If you really want to, you can be heard. Keep things simple. Learn to go out and play solo. That's a really really good thing to learn, if you're a singer-songwriter. Don't be dependent on a band because you may not always be able to afford one.

- Steve Earle

Play, Own, Singer-Songwriter, Dependent

I love e-books. I can carry the complete works of William Shakespeare around with me all the time. Just think about that. Whether I'm on an airplane or wherever. Being able to have a library in your back pocket basically is something I support.

- Steve Earle

Love, About, Works, Wherever

Fundamentalism, as practiced by the Taliban, is the enemy of real thought, and religion too.

- Steve Earle

Thought, Enemy, Too, Taliban

Funerals are a pagan rite. There's not any doubt about it.

- Steve Earle

Doubt, Pagan, About, Funerals

I think the singer/songwriter genre is going to be like bluegrass and jazz. You can make a living at it, but it's not part of the musical mainstream anymore.

- Steve Earle

Think, Living, I Think, Bluegrass

I've been a serial husband, and I've done it badly every time.

- Steve Earle

Husband, Been, Badly, Serial

The idea that murder victims' families are best served by continuing the cycle of violence is something that I consider to be not only a lie, but criminally negligent. You lie to victims' families when you tell them they're going to receive closure if they participate in the process and witness the execution of a human being.

- Steve Earle

Lie, Tell, Idea, Continuing

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

- Steve Earle

Voice, Till, Impressed, Rewrite

I don't think I'm a political songwriter as much as I am just a political person. I think it's in my fabric.

- Steve Earle

Political, Think, I Think, Songwriter

I've been on every interstate highway in the lower forty-eight states by now, and I never get tired of the view.

- Steve Earle

Tired, Been, Lower, Interstate

I'm constantly warning people that are involved in my life that I can go busk and make a living. I can make my rent in New York City in the subway, I promise, if I'm forced to.

- Steve Earle

City, My Life, Forced, Warning

If there is such a thing as a workaholic, I'm it, and that's what passes for leisure.

- Steve Earle

Workaholic, Passes, Thing, Such A Thing

The human race survived the Inquisition. We can survive. It's like the Anne Frank quote: 'In spite of everything, I still believe that people are basically good at heart.' Given what happened to her, it's one of the miracles of the world that she said that.

- Steve Earle

Believe, Frank, Anne, Survived

I am connected to the past in a way that keeps me going forward. Every leap forward that I make is by reaching back and firmly getting a footing in the past, and pushing forward as hard as I can.

- Steve Earle

In The Past, Going, Firmly, Keeps

You can listen to carpenters talk for hours in Ireland. The people have a relationship to words that I don't think you will run into anyplace in the world.

- Steve Earle

Think, Will, Hours, Ireland

I love baseball. I'll probably end up one of those old farts who go to spring training in Florida every year and drive from game to game all day.

- Steve Earle

Love, Game, Florida, Spring Training

I don't care what's happening in the mainstream of country music. I haven't in a long time.

- Steve Earle

Long, Country Music, Country, Mainstream

I'm a country singer, and I'm comfortable with that. But why does a country singer have to play only on country radio or a rock singer only on a rock station? I still don't understand why it's that big a deal.

- Steve Earle

Play, Big, Country, Station

We're so terrified of death in Western culture that we have to make up a myth of an afterlife. I think there's something to be said for living your life very mindful of the fact that you're going to die because I think you carry yourself differently. It doesn't have to be this big, negative bummer.

- Steve Earle

Die, Big, Very, Western

They say death and taxes are the only things that are inevitable. The truth is, you can not pay your taxes. I've done it, and there's consequences, but it can be done. Death you're not going to get out of, and you kind of got to deal with it.

- Steve Earle

Death, Deal, Inevitable, They Say

The creative core of New York has never been native New Yorkers; it's people from all over the world.

- Steve Earle

New, Over, Been, New Yorkers

My spiritual system is 12-step programs. That's the only one I've ever had. I didn't have one before that.

- Steve Earle

Before, Had, Ever, Programs

Making art in America is sort of a political statement in and of itself. It's not the best environment for that sometimes.

- Steve Earle

Art, Making, Itself, Political Statement

Sonnets are guys writing in English, imitating an Italian song form. It was a form definitely sung as often as it was recited.

- Steve Earle

Song, Often, Italian, Sung

At home, I'm lucky if I can write three or four hours before the phone starts ringing and the kids want to go to soccer.

- Steve Earle

Soccer, Lucky, Hours, Phone

I don't usually read reviews.

- Steve Earle

Read, Reviews

I've never known of Wal-Mart to be a good neighbor in any town it's ever moved into.

- Steve Earle

Never, Wal-Mart, Ever, Neighbor

You know, I'm not comfortable with people whose politics are static in a democracy.

- Steve Earle

Politics, Comfortable, Know, Static

Sympathetic characters usually have a voice. They usually don't have any trouble being heard.

- Steve Earle

Voice, Characters, Trouble

There's a long tradition of people from the South living in New York City.

- Steve Earle

New, Living, South, Tradition

I don't believe that songwriting has to be profound, but I truly believe that it's a crime for you to go outta your way for it not to be.

- Steve Earle

Believe, Songwriting, Go, Crime

I mainly read non-fiction, and that's probably because I have a huge amount of insecurity about my lack of education and the things I don't know.

- Steve Earle

Education, Amount, Read, Insecurity

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

- Steve Earle

Me, Agreement, About, One-On-One

I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

- Steve Earle

Think, Other, Take, Criticism

Becoming interested in poetics got me interested in theater. Theater is supposed to be poetry, you know, before it's anything else. It just doesn't fly if it isn't musical.

- Steve Earle

Becoming, Before, Musical

My audience is, you know, pinkos in big cities.

- Steve Earle

Big, Audience, Cities, Big Cities

My objection to the death penalty is based on the idea that this is a democracy, and in a democracy the government is me, and if the government kills somebody then I'm killing somebody.

- Steve Earle

Death, Death Penalty, Based, Democracy

My politics were really radical when I was younger, and then I moderated like everyone else does when they start having kids.

- Steve Earle

Politics, Having, Radical

I've never made a record that I'm ashamed of.

- Steve Earle

Never, Made, Record, Ashamed

You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.

- Steve Earle

See, Way, Got, Differently

I still write more songs about girls than anything else.

- Steve Earle

More, Songs, Still, Anything Else

Music was very influential on me as a kid.

- Steve Earle

Music, Kid, Very, Influential

I'm used to writing stories with a beginning a middle and an end in four minutes.

- Steve Earle

Beginning, Middle, Stories, Minutes

Having a child at 55... that's optimism.

- Steve Earle

Child, Having, Optimism

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