"You can't be wise and in love at the same time"

"I'm not gonna apologize for not being shirley temple"

"Do you have any ashtrays here?"

"...To quote socrates"

"What's happening with me? I know twice as many that are being tortured to death to know what's happening with you"

"I give my friends things... like rocks... and things"

"there's the mighty thames, that stopped hitler"

"i met Liberace once, you know he smiles? you oughta see him smile"

"This land is your land, this land is my land, sure, but the people who rule this country doesn't listen to music"

"I get paid by the word"

"how do your gums feel at this point?"

"he not busy being born is busy dyin'"

"When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose"

"I don't mind making conversation, but GOD! don't throw trash at me like that, I mean... what would Lenny Bruce say?!"

"It's a much better rumor to spread then 'I'd rather fight than switch', but who cares who says what if no one listens"

"It's not what comes in a mans mouth that defiles him"

"Won't ya come over and put your lipstick on fire?"

"It's peculiar and unnerving in a way to see so many young people walking around with cellphones and iPods in their ears and so wrapped up in media and video games. It robs them of their self-identity. It's a shame to see them so tuned out to real life. Of course they are free to do that, as if that's got anything to do with freedom. The cost of liberty is high, and young people should understand that before they start spending their life with all those gadgets."

"it’s not a character like in a book or a movie. He’s not a bus driver. He doesn’t drive a forklift. He’s not a serial killer. It’s me who’s singing that, plain and simple. We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, “My character this, and my character that.” Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me."

"All music is folk-music because horses don't sing"

"Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb."

"God, i'm glad i'm not me!"

"a poem is a naked person. Some people say that i am a poet, I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word. I'm a trapeze artist"

"There's no black and white, left and right to me anymore; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground. And I'm trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial such as politics. They has got nothing to do with it. I'm thinking about the general people and when they get hurt."

"All of us in some way are trying to kill time. When it's all said and done, time ends up killing us."

"yeah, i like the fugs"

"What's so bad about being misunderstood?"

"is there any hope?"

"it ain't easy being human."

"Sleep? aint sleepin'... Sleep's for dreamers. I haven't slept in thirty days, man. Takes a lot of medicine to keep up this pace"

"People are always talking about freedom. Freedom to live a certain way, without being kicked around. Course the more you live a certain way, the less it feel like freedom. Me, uhm, I can change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else. I don't know who I am most of the time."

"I'm against nature. I don't dig nature at all."

"saying 'cause of peace', it's like saying, 'hunk of butter', you know, I don't want you to listen to anybody who wants you to believe is dedicated to the hunk and not the butter."

"What good are fans? You can't eat applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it."

"are you as hungry as a man in drag, are you as hungry as a raccoon? a piece of flypaper balancing on a pair of earplugs?"

"actually applause is kinda bullshit..."

"Some of us pursue perfection and virtue and if we're lucky, we catch up to it. But happiness can't be pursued. It either comes to your or it don't. You can always say, "if only this and if only that", but if only is a state of mind that we get into when we feel deprived."

"I say there're no depressed words, just depressed minds."

"Cameras makes ghosts out of people"

"All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die."

"Art is the perpetual motion of illusion. The highest purpose of art is to inspire. What else can you do? What else can you do for anyone but to inspire them?"

"I don't need to be happy. Happiness is kind of a cheap word. Let's face it, I'm not the kind of cat that's going to cut off an ear if I can't do something."

"Hey man... I don't mind being shot, I just don't dig being told about it."

"Not everybody has the courage to sing like I do"

"You've ever been nice to people?, you ever walk the the street and say "Hi!" to everybody? I do that once in a while"

"Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you gotta know what things don't mean."

"i stopped trying to figure things out a long time ago"

"even the birds are chained to the skyway"

"coffee tastes better out of a glass"

"I've gotta build som tables, gotta build som shit...Been putting it on hold, it gotta get done"

"you can go any place you want to, you have many blessings, why don't you try to go to bed early once in a while, no wonder you call up and say these terrible things, you don't get any sleep. You don't have any friends... You probably dig your boss, alright now, bye bye"

"i'm not even gonna ask your name, that's how much i think of you"

"if i say red house, everybody gonna think about different red kinda houses"

"what are friends? someone you can be happy about a green door with? someone you can get something from?"

"i hate that all these kids love me, i don't want nobody to love me"

"I'm really hip? hey man, you're hip, i'm not hip, you're much hipper than I for being so aware of the situation. have you lost your mind?"

"if you don't know better, don't complain to me"

"hey, she's your sister, the least you could do is take an interest in her"

"i'm never nice to someone namned merle, you ever been nice to someone called bodegarde?"