All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It’s part of learning the craft. – Steve Earle
We’re so terrified of death in Western culture that we have to make up a myth of an afterlife. I think there’s something to be said for living your life very mindful of the fact that you’re going to die because I think you carry yourself differently. It doesn’t have to be this big, negative bummer. – Steve Earle
Every country that’s ever been the most powerful country in the world ceases to be the most powerful country in the world at some point. – Steve Earle
Fundamentalism, as practiced by the Taliban, is the enemy of real thought, and religion too. – Steve Earle
I’m from Texas. I hitchhiked to Tennessee when I was 19 years old, and it is really beautiful in Tennessee. – Steve Earle
To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship. – Steve Earle
You can go out and find ways to make your own record and get it out there now. If you really want to, you can be heard. Keep things simple. Learn to go out and play solo. That’s a really really good thing to learn, if you’re a singer-songwriter. Don’t be dependent on a band because you may not always be able to afford one. – Steve Earle
I mainly read non-fiction, and that’s probably because I have a huge amount of insecurity about my lack of education and the things I don’t know. – Steve Earle
As much as I’d like to think and as much as people mistakenly think my audience is blue collar people in the heart of America, my audience is basically, in the States, an NPR audience. I play college towns in the summer because that’s who comes to see me. – Steve Earle
I don’t believe that songwriting has to be profound, but I truly believe that it’s a crime for you to go outta your way for it not to be. – Steve Earle
Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that. – Steve Earle
I’m a country singer, and I’m comfortable with that. But why does a country singer have to play only on country radio or a rock singer only on a rock station? I still don’t understand why it’s that big a deal. – Steve Earle
America’s criminal justice system isn’t known for rehabilitation. I’m not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore. – Steve Earle
It amazes me that the most Christian funerals are the most barbaric funeral rites of passage that are celebrated anywhere in the world. – Steve Earle
In New York, I’m around a lot of the reasons I started playing music in the first place. I live right behind Matt Umanov Guitars. I live on the street that Suze Rotolo and Bob Dylan were walking down on the album cover. I recognize the history. – Steve Earle
I am connected to the past in a way that keeps me going forward. 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