Latest Steve Earle Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I'm not a racist, but I do have to work at not being a racist, because of where I grew up.

  Steve Earle

  Racist

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I don't get in vote in whether or how people remember me when I'm gone. It's really dangerous to sit around and worry about it too much, for me. It gets me way too in myself to worry about what people are going to think about me when I'm not around anymore.

  Steve Earle

  Thinking, People, Worry

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I don't spend a lot of time feeling sorry for myself, trying to compare how many records I've sold or how much money I've made.

  Steve Earle

  Sorry, Feelings, Trying

  Source: pitchfork.com

• People can try to make me into anything they want, but I think they're really throwing around language but saying the same thing.

  Steve Earle

  Thinking, People, Trying

  Source: pitchfork.com

• My therapist says that I choose women that I couldn't possibly succeed in a relationship with because I really want to be alone. Which sounds complicated and convoluted to me, but I don't know. Maybe she's right. There's a part of me that wants that.

  Steve Earle

  Succeed, Complicated

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

• I'll never believe that Americans have racticed in our history anything close to the purest form of democracy of the world. Because there are lots of democracies around the world that function better than ours does. It's always been that way. There's some truth to the idea that it's rigged, but there is a way that it's supposed to work that.

  Steve Earle

  Believe, Democracy, World

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

• When I write something simple I'm always really proud of it. When you write something that simple with that much air in it and the whole premise behind it is something pretty obvious - that everybody wants to be happy and free - the song is sort of an exercise in not forgetting that's what you really want and what you really need. We can get caught up in a lot of other stuff.

  Steve Earle

  Song, Writing, Exercise

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

• I was comparatively late in understanding Bob Dylan's overwhelming importance as a songwriter. Everybody who does my job exists in the shadow of Bob Dylan. There are two categories: Dylan and everybody else. It's as simple as that. And it's going to be that way until he dies.

  Steve Earle

  Jobs, Simple, Two

  Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk

• Bob Dylan emerged from nowhere, like an alien. And that was just the start.

  Steve Earle

  Bob, Aliens, Dylan

  Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk

• From the moment [Bob] Dylan arrived as a songwriter, he was [so] much better than everybody else around.

  Steve Earle

  Bob, Moments, Dylan

  Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk

• Critics are notoriously liberal with their use of the term 'genius'.

  Steve Earle

  Genius, Use, Term

  "Why Bob Dylan deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature". www.gq-magazine.co.uk. October 13, 2016.

• Bob Dylan is one of the very few people in the history of popular music who you can unquestionably apply that word [genius] to.

  Steve Earle

  People, Bob, Genius

  Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk

• I'm not a Democrat; I'm something well to the left of a Democrat, but I'm just realistic about the system.

  Steve Earle

  Realistic, Democrat, Wells

  "The Revolution Starts Now". Interview with Jeff Fleischer, www.motherjones.com. October 14, 2004.

• I can deal with conservatives in a democracy. With real conservatives, I don't agree with them, but I understand why they believe what they believe and I believe they're being honest with me about it.

  Steve Earle

  Real, Believe, Democracy

  "The Revolution Starts Now". Interview with Jeff Fleischer, www.motherjones.com. October 14, 2004.

• When you're really bummed out, the last thing you want to hear is up-tempo and positive. And it lets you know that you're not alone, that somebody has hurt before. It works the same way with chick songs as it does with political songs. When you hear somebody singing about these things, you know that you're not alone, that somebody else is suspicious of what's going on around us in the world. So you don't feel like you're crazy, and you feel like you might be able to make a difference.

  Steve Earle

  Song, Hurt, Crazy

  "The Revolution Starts Now". Interview with Jeff Fleischer, www.motherjones.com. October 14, 2004.

• My main area of activism is the death penalty, and it will continue to be once this crisis is over with.

  Steve Earle

  Death Penalty, Penalties, Activism

  "The Revolution Starts Now". Interview with Jeff Fleischer, www.motherjones.com. October 14, 2004.

• What songwriting does better than almost anything is empathy - it's incredibly empathetic. The reason people sat around in bars when they were bummed out and listened to country songs is because it made them feel better in the long run.

  Steve Earle

  Country, Running, Song

  "The Revolution Starts Now". Interview with Jeff Fleischer, www.motherjones.com. October 14, 2004.

• I wasn't raised to not write about issues, and I'm just living in really politically charged times. You know, I'd rather write songs about girls, but it's just hard to do right now.

  Steve Earle

  Girl, Song, Writing

  "The Revolution Starts Now". Interview with Jeff Fleischer, www.motherjones.com. October 14, 2004.

• People hate good books to be over. I wish I could write a 700-page book.

  Steve Earle

  Hate, Book, Writing

  "Musician Steve Earle". The Tavis Smiley Show, www.pbs.org. May 23, 2011.

• 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

  Past, Pushing Forward, Reaching

  "Will Sheff Meets Steve Earle". Interview with Michael Tedder, www.spin.com. May 17, 2011.

• You make decisions, and that's what separates art from some other pop music. It doesn't mean that you can't make an embarrassing amount of money, for a borderline Marxist, doing something that you love, but it does mean that this huge pool of money that was out there when I started making records in the '80s is gone.

  Steve Earle

  Art, Mean, Decision

  "Will Sheff Meets Steve Earle". Interview with Michael Tedder, www.spin.com. May 17, 2011.

• I have no doubt in mind that I justify the space I take up in the world.

  Steve Earle

  Space, Doubt, Mind

  Interview with Joshua Klein, pitchfork.com. October 8, 2007.

• What's important is you wake up in the morning and something doesn't exist, and when you finish you day's work something is in the world that wasn't there before.

  Steve Earle

  Morning, Important, Wake Up

  Interview with Joshua Klein, pitchfork.com. October 8, 2007.

• Songwriters are expanding time rather than compressing time. My short stories tend to be old fashioned, with a beginning, middle and end.

  Steve Earle

  Stories, Beginning Middle And End, Ends

  Interview with Joshua Klein, pitchfork.com. October 8, 2007.

• My gift's primarily literary. That being said, I ended up a musician. By the time I made the bluegrass record...I'm more impressed with myself when I push the envelope musically than I am when I push it literality.

  Steve Earle

  Musician, Records, Envelopes

  Interview with Joshua Klein, pitchfork.com. October 8, 2007.