"I am so often accused of gloominess and melancholy. And I think I'm probably the most cheerful man around. I don't consider myself a pessimist at all. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel completely soaked to the skin. … I think those descriptions of me are quite inappropriate to the gravity of the predicament that faces us all. I've always been free from hope. It's never been one of my great solaces. I feel that more and more we're invited to make ourselves strong and cheerful. .... I think that it was Ben Jonson who said, I have studied all the theologies and all the philosophies, but cheerfulness keeps breaking through."

"Only in Canada could somebody with a voice like mine win 'Vocalist of the Year'."

"It was only when you walked away I saw you had the perfect ass. Forgive me for not falling in love with your face or your conversation."

"God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is afoot. Magic is alive. Alive is afoot. Magic never died. God never sickened. Many poor men lied. Many sick men lied. Magic never weakened. Magic never hid. Magic always ruled. God is afoot. God was ruler though his funeral lengthened. Though his mourners thickened Magic never fled..."

"What is a saint? A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence. A saint does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago. I do not think that a saint dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order. It is a kind of balance that is his glory. He rides the drifts like an escaped ski. His course is the caress of the hill. His track is a drawing of the snow in a moment of its particular arrangement with wind and rock. Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and chance. Far from flying with the angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape. His house is dangerous and finite, but he is at home in the world. He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

"Although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warmed. That's the great Generosity of women and the great generosity of the Creator who worked it out is that there are no unilateral agreements on sexuality."

"Rust rust rust in the engines of love and time"

"And you kissed me shy as though I'd never been your lover"

"If you guarantee the postage, I'll mail you back the key."

"Neil Young is not a singer, nor is he a guitarist. Neil Young is a force of nature, like the wind or the sea or the sun, and his blazing talent is never better showcased than when he sits and strums his old Martin. He is able to achieve more with one note than most guitarists can with a hundred, and while his playing is sparse and song-orientated, you won’t find a finer example of music’s power to move anywhere else in the known universe. A living, breathing musical genius."

"Neil, you know, was this rock & roller who was coming around to folk music through Bob Dylan. Of course. Anyway, Neil came out to the club, and we liked him immediately. He was the same way he is now – this offhanded, dry wit. And you know what his ambition was at the time? He wanted a hearse, and a chicken farm. And when you think of it, what he’s done with his dream is not that far off. He just added a few buffalo. And a fleet of antique cars. He’s always been pretty true to his vision."

"And we'll be watching you No matter what you do And you can do your part By watchin' others too."

"Need distraction Need romance and candlelight Need random violence Need entertainment tonight Need the evidence Want the testimony of Expert witnesses On the brutal crimes of love."

"I never believed in much, But I believed in you."

"Welfare mothers make better lovers."

"We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man. We got a kinder, gentler, Machine gun hand. We got department stores And toilet paper Got styrofoam boxes For the ozone layer. Got a man of the people, Says keep hope alive Got fuel to burn, Got roads to drive."

"There's colors on the street Red, white and blue People shufflin' their feet People sleepin' in their shoes But there's a warnin' sign On the road ahead There's a lot of people sayin' We'd be better off dead. Don't feel like Satan, But I am to them. So I try to forget it, Any way I can."

"The economy was getting so bad, I had to lay myself off."

"When I was a younger man, Got lucky with a rock 'n' roll band, Struck gold in Hollywood, All the time I knew I would Get back to the country, Back where it all began. Get back to the country, Back in the barn again."

"Live music is better! Bumper stickers should be issued!"

"Shelter me from the powder And the finger Cover me with the thought That pulled the trigger Think of me As one you'd never figured Would fade away so young With so much left undone."

"In my little box At the top of the stair With my Indian rug And a pipe to share."

"The king is gone But he's not forgotten. This is the story Of a Johnny Rotten It's better to burn out Than it is to rust. The king is gone But he's not forgotten."

"Where the eagle glides ascending There's an ancient river bending Through the timeless gorge of changes Where sleeplessness awaits."

"My my, hey hey Rock and roll is here to stay. It's better to burn out Than to fade away. My my, hey hey."

"It's gonna take a lotta love To get us through the night It's gonna take a lotta love To make things work out right."

"It's gonna take a lotta love To change the way things are It's gonna take a lotta love Or we won't get too far."

"It's a cold bowl of chili when love lets you down."

"You are like a hurricane There's calm in your eye. And I'm gettin' blown away To somewhere safer Where the feeling stays. I want to love you but I'm getting blown away."

"Please take my advice, please take my advice, Open up the tired eyes, Open up the tired eyes."

"He tried to do his best but he could not."

"I've been flyin' down the road, And I've been starvin' to be alone, Independent from the scene that I've known."

"I'm not going back to Woodstock for a while, Though I long to hear that lonesome hippie smile, I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day, No, I don't think I'll be goin' back that way."

"Think I'll roll another number for the road, I feel able to get under any load, Though my feet aren't on the ground, I've been standing on the sound Of some open-hearted people going down."

"I'm singin' this borrowed tune I took from the Rolling Stones, Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own."

"And the world on a string doesn't mean a thing."

"Oh tell me where the answer lies, Is it in the notebook behind your eyes?"

"Well, people let me tell you, it sent a chill up and down my spine, When I picked up the telephone and heard that he'd died out on the mainline."

"Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'. We're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drummin'. Four dead in Ohio."

"A sparkle was in his eye, but his life was in his hand."

"On the shore lay Montezuma with his coca leaves and pearls In his halls he often wondered of the secrets of the worlds.... The women all were beautiful, the men stood straight and strong They offered life in sacrifice so that others could go on Hate was just a legend, war was never known The people worked together and they lifted many stones."

"He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns Looking for the new world in that palace in the sun"

"I have seen you in the movies, And in those magazines at night. I saw you on the barstool, When you held that glass so tight."

"You're all just pissin' in the wind, You don't know it but you are."

"I guess I'll call it sickness gone, It's hard to say the meaning of this song."

"Well, all those people, they think they've got it made, But I wouldn't buy, sell, borrow or trade Anything I have to be like one of them. I'd rather start all over again."

"The world is turning, I hope it don't turn away."

"You can really learn a lot that way, It will change you in the middle of the day, Though your confidence may be shattered, It doesn't matter."

"Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars, But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars."