People From New York State

"No matter how brilliantly an idea is stated, we will not really be moved unless we have already half thought of it ourselves."

"Others follow patterns; we alone are unpredictable."

"If you hate your lot but wouldn't trade it, it's not your lot you hate."

"What we forgive too freely doesn’t stay forgiven."

"Nobody really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why."

"The head never rules the heart, but just becomes its partner in crime."

"For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance."

"Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent."

"Despair is anger with no place to go."

"It's the most unhappy people who most fear change."

"We'd all like a reputation for generosity, and we'd all like to buy it cheap."

"The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all."

"We hear only half of what is said to us, understand only half of that, believe only half of that, and remember only half of that."

"Our strength is often composed of the weakness that we're damned if we're going to show."

"Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else."

"There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today."

"You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages."

"Loneliness, insomnia, and change: the fear of these is even worse than the reality."

"We are all born brave, trusting, and greedy, and most of us manage to remain greedy."

"Youth is not enough. And love is not enough. And success is not enough. And, if we could achieve it, enough would not be enough."

"Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head."

"Don't be yourself-be someone a little nicer."

"Every day of our lives we are on the verge of making those changes that would make all the difference."

"I can embarrass myself very easily on guitar. It's funny because people say to me I can play anything; I'm God on the guitar. But I could make a big list of everything I can't play... I'm grateful that people don't notice that."

"When I want to play music, you've got to get me on tape or else it goes."

"I pride myself on being incorrigible. I have a very hard time being told what to do."

"I've always done "the wrong thing" and had a pretty wonderful time doing it."

"Solos I kind of [couldn't] care less about. I know most people probably think that's what I care most about, but it's really the melody playing that is the cornerstone of what I'm working on."

"There's a fine line between giving the sense of freedom and being too free."

"Guitars are fun. There are plenty of different kinds to play. They look cool. They sound cool. Don't *you* want to play guitar?"

"Satriani's Law: There's at least a 30% chance that someone will print the name Satriani incorrectly"

"...Is the greatest guitar player in the world."

"When you hear something you don't like, don't ever play it again."

"Basic anatomy. That has got to be the ongoing frustration: Why can't my fingers do what I want them to do? Not being able to play what I hear in my head — that is the ultimate source of frustration."

"When these guitar mags bring up that stuff up and say such and such came up with this and that which is pushing the boundaries, I just say, "let's step back for a minute and admit something: nothing has happened for the last 100 years." And it's okay. It's not a bad thing … We're all working with "tools" that have been in existence for the last 100 years and there hadn't been a new "tool" for a long long time."

"Relax. Be yourself. Play a lot."

"Sounds cool. Looks cool. Feels cool."

"I'll tell you one thing: I will always play the sh** out of my guitar."

"When you think about where guitar playing is going today...: it's going everywhere at the same time."

"I assume most guitar players are like me. They're playing, having fun; then they get a magazine in the mail that says "Shred Is Dead" and they say, "What the Hell?" They throw it away and keep on playing."

"Mozart was a freaky kind of shredder."

"The Squares [his former band] never really fit in. We weren't rock enough. We weren't alternative enough. We weren't new wave enough and we weren't punk enough. Maybe we just weren't the right people for the band."

"I think it's quite painfully obvious when someone's practicing through an amp, as opposed to someone who's really laying down some stuff that just happens to be fast."

"18th September, 1970; Jimi Hendrix dies. I'm still on the football team when I get the news. So I take my helmet off and confront the coach to tell him I'm quitting the team. In a moment of brilliance he gives me one look and says "OK"."

"Eee-nee-mee-nee-my-nee-moe"

"When you hear an instrumental song someone is singing over, you know right away it's wrong."

"I've always spent a lot of time on my records with what I think were unique rhythmic approaches … but no one ever writes about your rhythm playing"

"My first [guitar] lessons lasted two weeks and it was "Jingle Bells." It didn't make any sense at all. I wanted to know how to play like Hendrix..."

"I write the songs first and in most cases teach myself the technique second."

"Song ideas have come to me in the middle of interviews, in the shower, or while I'm writing another song."