Billy Joe Shaver

"Most of the things I write are things that are personal to me. I realized that that's the only way to really be honest. If you go writing about someone else you're just guessing at it."

"I think maybe I was born to be a songwriter. It's quite a comfort. I wrote most of my songs to stay alive, the rest to get back in the house."

"I'm a serious guy, and hungry, too."

"I churched it and churched it. I got born again, slowly. I've slid back several times, but it seemed like it don't matter. God will give you seven times 70 a chance. I've pushed it to the limit a time or two."

"I've been in trouble most of my life. No stealing or anything like that, just fights. It's all fights."

"Hopefully things will work out where we become friends enough so that he gives me back my bullet."

"The main thing is to make up your mind. If you're going to do it, do it, and if you're just going to halfway do it don't even try. This is a very demanding thing. I stay simple, I didn't get a whole lot of education, so most of it's just coming from what I gathered up. If you stay honest we've all got in common that we're all different. If you stay real deadly honest and write about some very interesting things then you'll be a good one. A lot of people just don't like to get honest but it's the cheapest psychiatrist there is. I think that's the way to look at it."

"I look to bop till I drop. That's what I want to do. I want to go out on the road [...]I love to travel and I couldn't afford to do it if it wasn't for this."