"I have more dumb luck thank anybody I know. There must be a convey of guardian angels working twenty-four hours a day looking after me[...] Like the night I first got to Nashville that I laid down in the middle of Broadway, waiting to get run over. It didn't happen [...] I could swear they were keeping me alive just to see what I'd get next, I'm glad they feel that way. I'm trying to help them a little more this days."

"When I left Nashville I went to Texas because that's where I came from, and because I was playing in Texas a lot in different places. And I saw hippies and rednecks drinking beer together and smoking dope together and having a good time together and I knew it was possible to get all groups of people together – long hair, short hair, no hair – and music would bring them together."

"It didn't take long for me to realize that writing, performing and singing songs was what I was meant to do, but what other people thought was an entirely different issue. If I had to break it down, I’d say about 99 percent of the people in my life were telling me I wasn’t going to make it. All that adversity and lack of faith ended up just strengthening my own convictions. All that negativity really helped me in the end, because there’s no better inspiration for doing something than having somebody say that you can’t do it."

"Bob Wills taught me how to be a bandleader and how to be a star. [...] There was no time wasted between songs. I learned from him to keep the people moving and dancing. [...] The more you keep the music going, the smoother the evening will be. Another thing he taught me was people came and paid their money to hear what they wanted to hear. Even if Bob had a mediocre band that night, the people knew his records and his radio shows and they heard what they thought Bob Wills sounded like. Whether he had a good night or a bad night, every night was a good night."

"(Songwriting) It's a gift. It all comes from somewhere. I started out really young, when I was four, five, six, writing poems, before I could play an instrument. I was writing about things when I was eight or 10 years old that I hadn't lived long enough to experience."

"We are the same. There is no difference anywhere in the world. People are people. They laugh, cry, feel, and love, and music seems to be the commons denomination that brings us all together. Music cuts through all boundaries and goes right to the soul."

"In church I was told that if I so much as smoked a cigarette or tasted alcohol, I’d be damned in hell for all eternity[...]it didn’t take long for me to start thinking that sounded all wrong [...]I didn’t cotton to the idea that your religion should be flaunted to other people. Your religion is for you, and is best kept close to your heart."

"I started learning my lessons in Abbot Texas, where I was born in 1933. My sister Bobbie and I were raised by our grandparents [...] We never had enough money, and Bobbie and I started working at an early age to help the family get by. That hard work included picking cotton. [...] Picking cotton is hard and painful work, and the most lasting lesson I learned in the fields was that I didn't want to spend my life picking cotton."

"When you think a negative thought, it releases poison in your system. Next thing you know, you wind up with cancer or other diseases. I try to live in the moment without regrets."

"Well, there was a guy, a blacksmith, in Abbott, and he and my granddad both had blacksmith's jobs. I hung around there a lot. And he had a family band. He just let me play because he knew I wanted to work and needed the work. So, I played a guitar in a big polka band with a lot of horns and everything. So, fortunately, no one ever heard me, because I wasn't that great. But I was nine or 10 years old and making eight to 10 dollars a night. So, it was easier than picking cotton."

"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."

"I have this kind of philosophy that I can't do anything about what happened yesterday, or what's going to happen tomorrow. But I feel in full control of what's going on now. I think worry will make you sick. I've never seen it accomplish anything. I've never seen worrying about anything change it. So I decided not to do it. If you can't do anything about it, why in the hell worry about it? Every negative thought you have releases poison into your system, and will kill you or give you cancer, or tumors or whatever else you can think of. So if you are thinking negative about anything, erase that."

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"Sounds cool. Looks cool. Feels cool."

"Relax. Be yourself. Play a lot."

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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"."

"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."

"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 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."

"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'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"

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

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

"My inspirations don't come from outer space, they just come to me. I have no idea why they come when they do."

"Mozart was a freaky kind of shredder."

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

"I'm ready to take the heat."

"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..."

"If someone can relate my guitar solo to an exercise in a book … that's no fun at all."

"It really sucks when music is so perfect you just don't need to hear it anymore."

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

"Did I make you cry On Christmas day? Did I let you down Like every other day? Did I make you cry On Christmas day? Did I let you down On Christmas day? . . . I stay awake at night After we have a fight I'm writing poems about you And they aren't very nice."

"If I miss my chance, I didn't even try I'm not one to regret Christmas in July."

"Planes will crash, He'll never let you down. So maybe there's a crash coming for the ground, Seek His face, He'll never let you down. Worship grace, He'll never let you down."

"There's only a shadow of me In a manner of speaking, I'm dead"

"Fuck me, I'm falling apart"

"Since it's Christmas, let's be glad Even if your life's been bad, There are presents to be had."

"I love you more than the world can contain in its lonely and ramshackle head."